From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

=====

Wanderly Wagon followed human and puppet characters as they travelled around Ireland visiting interesting locations, rescuing Princesses and generally doing good. The original premise of the show expanded to follow the characters to magical lands of Irish mythology, and into outer space. The Wagon itself could fly. Using chroma key special effects, the Wagon was shown hovering in mid-air, landing in various magical lands, and even traveling underwater. 

=====

The book is divided into three parts: In the forest; In the sun; and In the evening. The novel is about a rugged fire lookout, Will Gatlin, who falls in love with an American girl half his age and then becomes wrongly blamed when she mysteriously disappears in the nearby Grand Canyon National Park. 

=====

The FMV opens with a flashback set shortly after the first game. Rayne is seen entering a library (called Blood Library), with a few Nazis inside. She finds that Brimstone members have been slaughtered and realizes her vampiric father Kagan is here, acting as an influential Nazi. Rayne rushes to confront him for revenge for her mother's rape and the murder of her family, and Kagan mocks Rayne by saying he doesn't recognize her, as he sired numerous offspring that way. He finds what he was looking for, called the Vesper Shard. Knowing Rayne still wants to kill him, he then brings Professor Trumain up from the floor, strangled by his own small intestine, but barely alive. Kagan knows that they know each other, and that Trumain "stole" yet another offspring from him. While Kagan mocks Rayne, Truman pulls out a detonator, first giving time for Rayne to run, then detonating the grenade, killing himself and seemingly taking Kagan with him. Denied the pleasure of killing him herself, Rayne spends the 60 years after the war seeking out and destroying Kagan's offspring. These offspring, Rayne's half-siblings, have banded together to form a group called the Cult of Kagan. The Cult has created the Shroud, a substance that can render sun rays harmless to vampires, allowing them to surface at all times of the day, and which twists nature into a nightmarish perversion (trees dying almost instantly, grass catching on fire, corpses twitching). Using the Shroud, the Cult has pledged to create a new era of vampiric supremacy, continuing Kagan's legacy. Rayne and her ally Severin find high ranking members of the Cult, who are responsible for hundreds of disappearances in a city. Rayne learns of their plot and defeats her ambitious half-sister Ferrill, the apparent leader of the cult. It's soon revealed that Kagan himself has long survived over the years and has come out of hiding. After Kagan has Ferrill dispatched, he sets about the plot to activate the Shroud, blocking out the sun and setting loose an army of vampires and demonic entities to destroy the city, making it his kingdom. Rayne again sets her sights on killing Kagan. With Kagan's army having taken over the city, Rayne seeks out his tower to face him once and for all, fighting his army to get to him. A vengeful Ferrill makes an army of her own to usurp Kagan. After Rayne dispatches the last of her half-siblings, she confronts Kagan in his throne room, with Kagan mocking her one last time about the effort he took to create her. A fight ensues and Rayne decapitates her father, avenging her family. Despite Kagan's death, the vampires still plague the city, and Severin suggests that Rayne should run it now. Brimestone declares martial law to rescue the surviving humans, cracking down hard on all vampires and more vampire overlords setting their sights on the city. 

=====

Ecki (Maximilian Brückner) lives with his parents who own a bakery in Boldrup, a (fictitious) small German town near Dortmund. Football, the German national pastime, is particularly popular in this heavily industrialized region and Ecki has been an avid and successful player in a local club FC Boldrup, since his childhood days. In a decisive game, he fails to keep a ball at a penalty and the team fails to get the promotion to the district league. The team are devastated and get drunk at a party. Ecki is then evicted from the team, with his mistake being used to cover the real reason--the revelation that he is gay that comes about when he is observed by some of his teammates kissing another player Tobias on the mouth. Ecki is defiant and immediately sets out to form his own team and beat his ex-teammates at their game. So he sets off for Dortmund to find members for his new team with the help of his sister Susanne, who is living there. From the fans of his favorite club Borussia Dortmund he finds confusion, but he gradually succeeds in others places, such as a kebab shop and the leather bar 'Steel Tube' to recruit more homosexual players for his team. Among the greatest hopes are the two Brazilians Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and the actually hidden heterosexual bookseller Klaus. Meanwhile, he also manages to win the heart of dreamboy Sven (David Rott), who becomes his first boyfriend. Training of the team is done by Karl (Rolf Zacher), an ex-soccer player himself who quit the sport years ago after a stinging defeat. When the big day of the game comes, the match starts out badly for Ecki's team, but ultimately they are able to triumph over his old teammates by allowing their homophobia to turn against themselves. 

=====

Jonathan E. is the team captain and veteran star of the Houston Rollerball team. He has become the sport's most recognizable and talented player. After another impressive performance against Madrid, Mr. Bartholomew, chairman of the Energy Corporation, whose headquarters is Houston, announces that Jonathan will be featured in a "multivision" broadcast about his career. Bartholomew tells Jonathan that he wants him to retire. He offers the Rollerballer a lavish retirement package if Jonathan makes the announcement during the special. He then preaches the benefits of corporate-run society and the importance of respecting executive decisions, never explaining exactly why he must retire. Jonathan refuses, and requests to see his former wife Ella, who had been taken from him some time earlier by a corporate executive who wanted her for himself. Suspicious of a forced retirement, Jonathan goes to a library and asks for books about the corporation and history. He finds that all books have been digitized and "edited" to suit the corporations, and are now stored on supercomputers at large protected corporate locations. Cletus, Houston's former coach who brought Jonathan along and helped make him a superstar, is now an Energy executive as well as Jonathan's friend. He warns him that the Executive Committee is afraid of him, though he cannot learn why people so powerful would be afraid of a Rollerballer, even the best player in the world. Rollerball soon degrades into senseless violence as the rules are changed just to force Jonathan out. Houston's semi-final game against Tokyo has no penalties and only limited substitutions. The brutality of the match kills several players, including Houston's lead biker, Blue. Jonathan's best friend and teammate, Moonpie, gets head spiked, brained, and left in a vegetative state. Despite the violence, Houston is victorious and will play New York for the world championship. Bartholomew hosts an executive teleconference to discuss the game's future. They decide that the Houston – New York game will be played with no penalties, no substitutions, and no time limit in the hope that Jonathan, if he decides to play, will be killed during the game. The conference reveals why Jonathan must retire: Rollerball was conceived not only to satisfy man's bloodlust, but to demonstrate the futility of individualism. Jonathan's popularity and longevity as a player threaten this purpose. Jonathan makes his way to Geneva to access the world's central supercomputer, known as "Zero". While revered as the repository of all human knowledge, Zero is flawed, which is revealed when the librarian mentions that Zero has "lost" the entire 13th century. Jonathan's goal is to find out how the corporations make their decisions, but the result is incomprehensible computer doubletalk. Afterwards, Jonathan receives a visit from his former wife Ella, who has been sent to convince him to retire and to make it clear that the coming game will be "to the death." Jonathan realizes his wife's visit was set up by the Executives, and erases a long-cherished movie of the two of them, stating, "I just wanted you on my side." Jonathan decides that despite the dangers, he will play. The final match quickly loses any semblance of order that it might have had as the players are injured or killed. The crowd, ecstatic at first, gradually becomes subdued as the carnage unfolds before them and the game devolves into a gladiatorial fight. Jonathan is soon the only player left on the track for Houston, while a skater and a bikeman remain from New York. After a violent struggle in front of Mr. Bartholomew's box, Jonathan dispatches the skater and takes the ball from him. The biker charges but Jonathan counters, knocking him off his bike and down to the inside of the track. He pins the biker down and raises the ball over his head, then pauses. Refusing to kill his fallen opponent, Jonathan gets to his feet and painfully makes his way to the goal, slamming the ball home and scoring the game's only point. Jonathan skates around the track in silent victory. The coaches and fans of both teams chant his name, first softly, then louder and louder as he skates faster and faster. Mr. Bartholomew exits the arena hurriedly, possibly fearing a riot as the chant of "Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan!" becomes a roar. 

=====

In 2005, the new sport of rollerball becomes hugely popular in many countries. Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) invites NHL hopeful Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) to join him playing for the Zhambel Horsemen in Kazakhstan. The highly paid Marcus and Jonathan are teamed with low-paid locals, who are often severely injured in the game, which is an extraordinarily violent extension of roller derby involving motorcycles and a metal ball. In the beginning, Jonathan, the team's star player and the poster child of promoter Alexi Petrovich (Jean Reno), is enamored by the high-octane sport, the popularity, sports cars and with his female teammate Aurora (Rebecca Romijn). But Jonathan and Ridley eventually discover that the cynical Alexi and his opportunistic assistant, Sanjay (Naveen Andrews), have a vested interest in keeping the game as popular as possible, through planned gory "accidents" and ensuring that Jonathan and Ridley cannot quit the team and remain high-profile stars. After an accident almost causes Aurora to be killed, Jonathan and Ridley decide that they need to flee the country to save their lives. The two are followed by Alexi and several body guards, who attack the two before they can reach the Russian border. Jonathan is injured and Ridley has to leave him behind. Alexi and his men capture Jonathan and kill Ridley after the latter successfully crosses the border. Following the escape attempt, Alexi tries to stage a public execution of Jonathan by removing all the rules from the upcoming Rollerball match, along with trading Aurora to the opposing team (as requested by Jonathan in an attempt to get away from danger). However, Jonathan, with the help of his teammates, start a revolution, causing the fans to see the sport for what it really is, and ultimately to kill Alexi. 

=====

*The Mayflower Project: At the start of the first book, Jobs learns of a seventy-six mile long asteroid on a collision course with Earth. His parents then tell him of a project of eighty people being shipped off into a shuttle with solar sails and hibernation booths. Jobs, along with his best friend Mo'Steel, attempt to give a place to Jobs's crush Cordelia, but learn from her father that she's away in San Francisco. Cordelia later dies when a small piece of the asteroid breaks off and destroys San Francisco. Jobs, Mo'Steel and their parents all get shipped off to the Mayflower along with the rest of the eighty, who are being pursued by a mob who wants to destroy the Mayflower, as well a pair of brothers named Mark and Harlin "D-Caf" Melman, the former of which intends to kill the Mayflower's crew to give him and his brother places on the Mayflower. Shortly before boarding the Mayflower, a gunman kills one of the eighty and the Mayflower takes off with Mark and D-Caf, who have stowed away in spaces suits, and unbeknownst to anyone, a pregnant marine sergeant, Tamara Hoyle. Mark attacks Tamara, but is ultimately killed by her. Jobs hears the commotion and subdues D-Caf, but not before D-Caf accidentally shoots one of the pilots. The Mayflower commander, Colonel Willett realizes that a solar sail has been damaged. While he places Tamara and D-Caf into hibernation booths, Jobs revives Mo'Steel, and the pair of them repair the sail moments before the asteroid hits Earth. The book ends with Jobs and Mo'Steel returning to their berths, but Colonel Willett takes Mark's gun and shoots himself, and everyone falls asleep, all except for an orphan boy named Billy Weir. *Destination Unknown: Jobs wakes up from hibernation, along with Mo'Steel and a girl named 2Face, and the three of them discover that not everyone has survived, including both Jobs's parents, Mo'Steel's dad and 2Face's mom. Slowly but surely other members of the eighty wake up, including Billy, a girl named Violet Blake and her mother Wylson, the president's son Yago, Mo'Steel's mother, 2Face's dad Shy Hwang, Jobs's brother Edward and others. They soon realize that there's no sign of reentry damage, their environment looks like two famous paintings and two of the "wakers" are killed; Connie Huerta by Tamara's baby and Errol Smith at the hands of a hover-board-riding alien later named Riders. Other members of the eighty emerge, including, D-Caf, a boy named Rodger Dodger, a boy named Anamull, a girl named Tate a man named Burroway. Two others include T.R. and Big Bill Weir, Billy's adopted father. The Remnants learn that Big Bill is infested with worms. When Violet attempts to save him, one worm gets in her finger, prompting Jobs to cut off her finger and Wylson to abandon her; Big Bill is also killed by Billy, who then blacks out. Jobs, Mo'Steel and his mother, Olga stay with Violet and witness another group of aliens entering the environment, which Jobs now realizes is a colossal ship. *Them: While Jobs's group stays with Violet, the main group of Remnants have found a replica of the Tower of Babel and are attacked by a group of Riders. Tamara battles one of the Riders and strangely manages to kill it. When Wylson remarks on it, Tamara replies, "Everything dies, human." Meanwhile, Jobs and the others get frequently attacked by strange demons that Violet identifies as Bosch's Final Judgement. Along the way, they encounter one of the aliens they saw entering the ship; Mo'Steel had called them Blue Meanies. They attempt to communicate with the Meanie with difficulty, but with help from Billy, they manage to get out of him that his name is Four Sacred Streams and that Mother is confused, which Jobs assumes is the Ship, and that a node must be destroyed, which is creating the environments. Back with the others, 2Face attempts to leave with Edward, having been discriminated by Yago as a freak. She returns to the others and gets attacked by the other Remnants, who decided to feed 2Face to Tamara's baby in order for Tamara to protect them from the Riders, so 2Face bribes Yago so that Wylson will be sacrificed. But the baby doesn't get to eat anyone when Four Sacred Streams destroys the node at the cost of his own life, saving the lives of Jobs's group, but trapping the other Remnants in Mother's default setting, the Riders' home territory. *Nowhere Land: Jobs and his group reunite with their fellow Remnants, who have barely escaped an attack from the Riders. They find a large creature, that they call a Blimp, swimming through the new environment, a copper colored sea with small islands dotted around it. Using a Rider boomerang provided by D-Caf, Mo'Steel manages to get a hold on the Blimp and help the other Remnants onto the Blimp. Wylson then berates Yago in his attempt to sacrifice her to Tamara's baby and attempts to replace him with Jobs as her new representative for the younger Remnants. 2Face intervenes, claiming that survival is more important. The following day, they're attacked by the Riders again. Billy tries to keep the Blimp moving and several of the Remnants are lucky enough to kill some of the Riders, but they just keep coming. The Remnants hide inside the Blimp itself and escape the Riders but shortly after they leave, the Blimp dies. They swim to one of the islands and spot another one of Mother's replicas, the U.S.S. Constitution, which they commandeer. Later on, they spot a statue infested with Blue Meanies, who are battling squid-like creatures. Having heard of Four Sacred Streams from Jobs, the Remnants attempt to make the Meanies their allies by firing the Constitution's cannons at the statue. Instead, the Blue Meanies angrily return fire on the Remnants, killing Shy Hwang. In the confusion as the Remnants go below decks, Billy is thrown overboard by Tamara and Wylson is also thrown off by a massive wave. Mo'Steel notices the commotion and attempts to save them. Billy manages to take them to safety, but Wylson has drowned. The other Remnants meanwhile are now surrounded by Blue Meanies, completely defenseless. *Mutation: Mo'Steel and Billy encounter two of the Remnants that they accidentally left behind when they encountered the worms, Alberto Disalvo and his son Kurbick, who has had his skin and nerves surgically removed by Mother. They group together and find a chair linked to Mother, which Alberto sits in, resulting with his mind being scrambled. Meanwhile, the Blue Meanies, who had surrounded the Remnants in the previous book, retreat when Mother creates three ships to attack them and end up attacking the U.S.S. Constitution. The Remnants are saved when Mo'Steel is made a giant by Billy and destroys the ships. Billy then decides to sit the chair and the Remnants find themselves in a new environment, Billy's thoughts. Mo'Steel, Alberto and Kubrick meet up with the rest of the Remnants in a McDonald's, where they are attacked by an army of female warriors, presumably from a comic book Billy read as a kid. They barely manage to escape when they're attacked by Riders and Squids in a replica of Billy's old school. They escape again when the environment changes to Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks". Here they meet an image of Big Bill, created by Billy to communicate with the other Remnants while he interfaces with Mother, who is experiencing sadness from being abandoned by her creators, the Shipwrights; Mother had mutated Kubrick to look more like the Shipwrights. *Breakdown: Two other Remnants, Noyze and Doctor Cohen have been captured from the Blue Meanies, who are deciding what to do about the humans. Unbeknownst to them, Noyze, who had been deaf for part of her life, understands the sign language of the Meanies. Meanwhile, Mother offers the other Remnants to help her destroy the Blue Meanies, to which Yago willingly volunteers for. He then ends up in one of the chairs and the environment changes to an alternate version of the White House, where Mother provides Yago with a computer generated army from the Civil War. While Jobs, Violet and 2Face follow Yago to the Blue Meanie base, Mo'Steel and Kubrick meet up with Billy an find Yago in one of the chairs linked to Mother. Meanwhile, Yago's strike force is decimated by the Blue Meanies and Jobs notices Tamara's baby absorb one of the Blue Meanies. Kubrick is then able to remove Yago from the chair and place his father into it, but Mother kills him and Billy sends himself, Mo'Steel and Kubrick to the battlefield. With the battle over, 2Face accuses Tamara's baby of being a Shipwright and divides the Remnants into factions to either follow her or the baby. Jobs, Mo'Steel, Violet, Kubrick, Noyze, Olga and Doctor Cohen join 2Face while the rest join the baby. The two groups depart, each with the same destination in mind, the bridge of Mother. *Isolation: 2Face's group is heading for the bridge of Mother, but Tamara is taking a different course. Tamara meets with the Riders and participates in the Rule of Nine, where she must duel nine Riders to the death at once. Tamara kills the first eight and kills the last one with some slight intervention by Tate. Tamara gains control of the Riders to destroy the Blue Meanies in the baby's name and gain control of Mother. Tate returns to the others and reports her findings to the other Remnants; Tate had come with Yago's group only to protect Tamara, realizing that the baby was controlling her. She then decides to alert Jobs and 2Face of the danger. Along with Rodger Dodger and D-Caf, who decided he wanted a break from Yago, they steal some Rider hover-boards and alert the other Remnants, who have just avoided an attack from Squids, which Billy had indicated were automatons. Tamara arrives with the Riders and attack the Blue Meanies, who have gathered at the bridge. During the battle, the baby absorbs several dead Blue Meanies and takes on the true form of a Shipwright and ascends to the bridge with Tamara, closely followed by Billy, Jobs, Mo'Steel, and Tate. Billy duels the Shipwright while at the same time uses his mind to have Mo'Steel duel Tamara. Ultimately, Billy destroys the Shipwright when Mother intervenes in his favor, freeing Tamara in the process. He then leaves the bridge with Jobs and Mo'Steel (Tate decided to stay with Tamara) and forcefully ends the battle, angering Yago, who vows to destroy Billy. *Mother, May I?: Billy has enforced the Big Compromise, the aliens are to not attack the Remnants and in exchange the Remnants won't alter Mother's course. Three months later, while exploring Mother's lab, Jobs finds what he believes may be what's left of Earth. Knowing it will break the Big Compromise, he consults Billy, who says he can make Mother return to Earth if the Remnants so choose, and asks Jobs to search Mother's "basement", because Billy can't sense anything in there. While Jobs takes Mo'Steel, Kubrick, Tate, Anamull, Yago, and Tamara to the basement with him, some Blue Meanies attack Violet in her Greek villa and interrogate her about Yago's whereabouts, claiming that he'd been given a custom Blue Meanie weapon and deviating their fellows into turning against them, which attracts 2Face, Edward, and T.R. A small fight commences in which one of the Blue Meanies kills T.R. in an attempt to kill Edward. Violet, infuriated by this senseless act, changes her mind on her opposition of returning to Earth. Meanwhile, Jobs's and his group are attacked by other Blue Meanies searching for Yago. Some are killed by Yago's new weapon but the last one is absorbed by Amelia, one of the missing eighty that vanished from their berths on the Mayflower. She instructs Jobs to tell Billy not to alter Mother's course. However, Billy alters Mother's course before he and the others can deliver the message. *No Place Like Home: The Remnants are preparing for an inevitable battle with the Blue Meanies, and possibly the Riders. To protect them, Billy constructs a massive wall that only the Remnants can open from the inside. Noyze proposes attempting to negotiate with the aliens but 2Face argues against it. Yago meanwhile, is recruiting Blue Meanies who tell him that their brethren are preparing for a raid to test the Remnants' defenses. But late one night, Noyze and Doctor Cohen sneak out to attempt to negotiate with the aliens. They encounter a Blue Meanie that knocks them out and places a device onto Doctor Cohen that allows it to see into her memories and gather all the information it needs for its fellows to attack the Remnants; the device also badly damages Doctor Cohen's mind. Meanwhile, a man named Charlie is spotted and brought into the Remnants' territory. Olga and Violet restore him to health and Noyze returns with Doctor Cohen. The next day, the Remnants hold their own against a Rider attack but their defenses are decimated by the Blue Meanies. In the battle, it's revealed that Charlie is one of Amelia's two partners sent to kill Billy. He ends up attacking 2Face instead, causing an infuriated Kubrick to attack him. D-Caf is also killed in battle but Violet uses her newly revealed mutation to bring him back to life; she had the power to turn into a swarm of worms ever since waking up and had used it earlier to bring Rodger Dodger back to life after he accidentally killed himself playing with a Rider boomerang. When asked if she's still human, she replies, "Are any of us?" *Lost and Found: Kubrick and Doctor Cohen are listed as dead at the start of this book and Charlie has returned to Amelia and his other partner, Duncan. Grieved by Kubrick's death, 2Face decides she wants Violet's mutation so she can help her fellow Remnants. When Violet refuses, 2Face deliberately kills herself so Violet will give her the mutation; Violet refused because she had failed to save Tamara after she'd been killed by the Blue Meanies. Tate discovers she has a mutation as well when she spots Yago breaking curfew and her mouth grows big and bites him; Yago is saved only by intervention from Jobs. They arrive on Earth and find that it's nothing but a wasteland with no water and pillars of flames, one of which kills Burroway. Yago meets with the Troika (the name Billy gave Amelia's group) and makes a deal with them to abandon Billy on Earth and leave on Mother with him. He then sends his last Blue Meanie to spy on Jobs. The next morning, Jobs finds his newly planted tomato seed sprouting. As all the Remnants and Billy all gather around it, Yago takes off on Mother with the Troika, and unintentionally, Tate. The Remnants are left on the barren Earth along with four Blue Meanies and a pair of Riders. And unbeknownst to anyone, a girl named Echo has observed everything from an unnoticed view deck. *Dream Storm: Having been abandoned on Earth by Yago and the Troika, Anamull starts a fight with the Blue Meanies and Riders, killing two of the Meanies and prompting the other aliens to retreat. Billy, now disconnected from Mother, falls into a coma. Echo is now formally introduced as being an Alpha, part of a human colony who survived the Rock, who strongly believe in genetic perfection and decided to allow the Remnants to die. Another group, known as the Marauders, live out in the wild and their leader, Hawk, kills the Alpha leader, Woody, and forcefully takes more than the Marauders' fair share of food. Meanwhile, Jobs and Mo'Steel take the suits from the dead Blue Meanies to explore the area. While they're away, D-Caf accidentally eats Anamull when he loses control of the worms in his body. Jobs and Mo'Steel also get caught in a violent storm that makes them see things that can't possibly be real; Jobs sees San Francisco and Mo'Steel sees his grandmother making bread. They return to the others and Edward reports that he'd seen some people nearby, who are some of the Marauders. Edward leads the Remnants to where he spotted them, and they stumble into the Alphas' home where Hawk and some of the Marauders attack them. Mo'Steel kills Hawk with a Rider boomerang he and the other Remnants are taken to separate rooms. Mo'Steel wakes up and a Marauder woman named Aga says he is the new leader of the Marauders. When Mo'Steel asks to see the others, he finds that Billy is missing from the group. *Aftermath: Mo'Steel must now prove himself worthy of being leader of the Marauders by killing a Beast. He, along with the Remnants and Marauders, depart from the Alpha colony. Hawk's brother, Newton, is angry that Mo'Steel become leader as he had intended to become leader himself; he then plots the best ways to usurp Mo'Steel. During the journey, Mo'Steel learns that some of the Marauders are mutated humans rejected by the Alphas. Some of them, like Badger and Cocker, are decent people, and Olga befriends Aga. The Marauders also have a shaman among them named Sanchez, to whom Violet is attracted to. If any person created by the Alphas had any sort of disability, they were rejected and sent to live with the Marauders. They soon arrive in the "Twilight Zone" of Earth and the Marauders warn the Remnants of the Slizzers, which turn out to be mutated cockroaches, one of which steals and devours the child Tackie. Newton makes several attempts to take revenge on Mo'Steel. First he has Rattler attack Olga, but is killed by Mo'Steel. 2Face also sees the Marauders passing around a bag full of pellets and warns the others not to eat them. But when Mo'Steel refuses to marry Grost, Newton has Balder attempt to poison D-Caf, but Aga helps him recover. They now arrive at the lair of the Beasts, where Mo'Steel learns are mutated rats. Mo'Steel kills the leader as instructed and Newton attempts to kill him but is foiled by Edward. No sooner does Mo'Steel berate Newton, then they're all attacked by Savagers, a group of Marauders who turned against their fellows, and have allied themselves with the two Riders. *Survival: While the rest of the Remnants are trapped on Earth, Tate is trapped on Mother with Yago and the Troika. After gathering all the Blue Meanies and Riders for the Troika to devour, Yago attempts to feed Tate to the Troika. But Tate's new mutation, the Mouth, overcomes her and she eats Yago, whose consciousness is still alive in Tate's mind. Tate then falls asleep and sees a vision of the earth green again and even saw someone she knew to be Jobs's daughter. She then wakes up and finds one of the chairs interfaced with Mother and sits in it. She learns that Mother is feeling terrible pain because Billy is no longer with her and displays feelings to Tate by taking memories out of Tate's own mind. The Troika now emerge from cocoons and Amelia deliberately gets eaten by Tate while Duncan plants a virus into Mother, reducing her to a simple computer called Daughter. Tate also eats Charlie and has dreams of Billy merging with Mother on Earth people living on a green Earth. She along with Yago, Amelia and Charlie take control of Daughter and use her to launch Duncan into the vacuum of space. Charlie later takes over Tate's body but is killed when Tate, Yago and Amelia drive him insane and causes him to fade away. Tate, Yago and Amelia spend sixty years of peace traveling the stars trying to find new forms of life. When Yago requests to Tate that they return to Earth, Tate refuses, unwilling to return to what's left of Earth. Tate wakes up the next day and learns from Amelia that Yago has died of old age. Feeling responsible for Yago, Tate and Amelia come up with a plan to undo the damage of the Rock. Traveling through time and space Tate orders a rehabilitated Mother to crash into Asia where the Remnants originally landed, killing her and Amelia on impact. *Begin Again: The Remnants and Marauders emerge victorious against the Savagers, killing the two Riders and sustaining no casualties of their own. After the battle, Sanchez informs them that he can hear the Source calling to them. Mo'Steel sends Cocker to the Alpha colony but they refuse to come. Echo, who had volunteered some of DNA to make a new human is found out to be blind, and so the Alphas imprison Echo and her baby intending to leave them to die. Lyric, Mattock and Echo's mentor, Westie help Echo and her baby escape but Westie chooses to stay in the colony and instructs the others to leave her. They meet Cocker who takes them to the source with the others. The source is none other than Mother. Jobs, Mo'Steel, Violet, 2Face, Mattock, Newton and Sanchez enter Mother and find Tate's skeleton and a recording she took before crashing on Earth telling the Remnants that all they need is love and to listen to Billy, who has merged with Mother. Sanchez then has a vision of a green Earth. They return from Mother and inform the others. Newton doesn't believe that this green world is possible and intends to keep it from coming to pass. Sanchez stays inside Mother and learns from Billy that three elements are needed for a ritual to make Earth green, Mother, the Five, who were the other missing five besides the Troika, and Echo's child, who Jobs had named Lumina. Newton attempts to steal Lumina, but is foiled by the Remnants, prompting him to flee. 2Face, convinced that Billy is setting them up to fail attempts to kill Billy, resulting with Billy killing her but giving her a vision of her mother to die peacefully. Echo then willingly agrees to risk her baby's life and gives her to Billy. In the epilogue, the ritual has succeeded but 2Face's attack made Billy unable to survive the regreening. Jobs has married Echo and have named their next daughter after Tate, Mo'steel has married Noyze, who have one child and another on the way, Mattock and Lyric have married and Violet marries Sanchez. They have searched for the Alphas with no luck and there's no sign of Newton. At last, the survivors have peace. 

=====

Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is a machinist whose insomnia has led to him becoming emaciated. His appearance and behavior keep his coworkers away, and they eventually turn against him when he is involved in an accident which causes his coworker, Miller, to lose his left arm. Trevor, who was distracted by an unfamiliar co-worker named Ivan, is blamed for the accident. No one at the factory knows of Ivan and there are no records of him. Trevor seems to find comfort in the arms of Stevie, a prostitute with genuine affection for him, and with Maria, a waitress at an airport diner he frequents. He is haunted by brief flashes of recurring imagery, and things such as his car cigarette lighter take on a menacing air. A mysterious series of post-it notes appear on his refrigerator, depicting a game of hangman. These vague incidents send him further into paranoia, but he nonetheless attempts to establish a relationship with Maria. Meeting her at an amusement park, Trevor goes with her son Nicholas on a fun house ride called "Route 666". The ride, originally a harmless scare ride, begins to show increasingly disturbing images for Trevor as it advances, and its flashing lights cause Nicholas to suffer an epileptic seizure. No longer able to think clearly, Trevor suspects that the bizarre events are a concerted effort to drive him insane. These ideas are fed to him in small random clues. One of them is a picture of Ivan fishing with Trevor's coworker Reynolds, which he discovers in Ivan's wallet when Ivan leaves it unattended in a pub. Another near-accident at work causes Trevor to lash out in rage at his co-workers; as a result, he is immediately fired. Increasingly distracted and alienated, Trevor forgets to pay his utility bills and his electricity is disconnected. A dark, viscous liquid begins trickling out of the freezer, coating the refrigerator door with streaks of what appears to be blood. After several attempts to confront Ivan, Trevor tries to trace his license plate. He follows Ivan's car to read its license plate, but runs out of gas during the pursuit. When a DMV clerk insists that personal information cannot be released unless a crime has been committed, Trevor throws himself in front of a car in order to accuse Ivan of committing a hit and run. He files a police report with Ivan's plate number on it, only to be baffled when he is told that the car in question is his own; he had reported the vehicle totaled one year ago. He flees from the suspicious policemen and goes to Stevie, who clothes and washes him, but he finds the photo of Ivan and Reynolds framed in her home and accuses her of conspiring against him. Confused, Stevie says the picture is of Reynolds and Trevor, but he refuses to look at it and is thrown out after a verbal conflict. He goes to the airport diner, but is told by an unfamiliar waitress they've never had an employee named Maria. The waitress at the counter tells Trevor she has served him every day for a year, and in all that time he spoke so little that she began to think he was a mute. Trevor sees Ivan take Nicholas into Trevor's apartment and, fearing the worst, sneaks inside. Nicholas is nowhere to be seen and doesn't respond to Trevor's calls. He confronts Ivan in the bathroom and kills him after a struggle. He pulls back the shower curtain, only to find the bathtub empty. He goes to the refrigerator and opens it to find rotting fish and other spoiled food tumble out. His mind then flashes back to the fishing photo, which actually shows a healthy Trevor with Reynolds, just as Stevie claimed, and Trevor hallucinating Ivan in it. The scene returns to one which occurred during the opening credits, in which he tries to dispose of someone's corpse, presumably Ivan's, by rolling it in a rug and casting it into the ocean. When the rug unravels, there is nothing inside. Ivan, alive as ever, appears holding a flashlight and laughs. Trevor stares into a mirror at home, repeating the words, "I know who you are." It is revealed that one year prior, a healthy looking Trevor ran over and killed a boy identical to Nicholas after taking his eyes off the road to use the car's cigarette lighter, which was witnessed by the boy's mother, identical to Maria. He decided to drive away, and the resulting guilt became the deep-seated cause of his insomnia, emaciation and repressed memory. Ivan was a figment of Trevor's imagination and a manifestation of himself before the accident. He fills the missing letters of the hangman note to spell "killer." He briefly considers going to the airport and escaping, but instead drives to police headquarters, signifying his "road to salvation," a recurring theme in the film. He is accompanied by a silent but encouraging Ivan, who bids him an approving farewell outside the station. At the police station's front desk, he confesses to the hit and run. Two police officers escort Trevor to a cell, where he states he wishes to sleep and does so for the first time in a year. 

=====

It's 1804 and England expects an invasion attempt by Napoleon Bonaparte's armies. Near Budmouth (Weymouth) Anne Garland lives with her widowed mother in part of a flour mill, next to their landlord and friend miller William Loveday. Thousands of soldiers pitch camp on the downs nearby, ready to meet the invasion. Anne attracts the admiration of two of them, both with local connections: Trumpet Major John Loveday, the decent and thoughtful son of the miller, and Yeomanry officer Festus Derriman, the boastful and aggressive nephew of the skinflint local squire. Anne favours John and loathes Festus, but Festus pesters her, a situation not helped by her mother's desire for her to marry him on account of his rank and (assumed) wealth. However, when her mother changes her view (partly due to the miller's courting of her) and favours marriage to John, Anne changes her mind and favours Festus, thinking herself too ‘high’ for a miller's son. Into all this walks Bob Loveday, the miller's younger son, home from a life in the merchant navy. Anne has a secret passion for him (they were childhood sweethearts), but he has brought home Matilda, a prospective bride whom he met just two weeks earlier in Southampton. John and Matilda recognise each other, and after a private conversation about her past she does a midnight flit. John tells Bob what's happened, and although Bob understands, he can't help resenting John's intervention. Miller Loveday and Mrs Garland marry, John's regiment moves away (with neither Anne, Bob nor Festus sorry to see him go), and Anne turns her focus to Bob. Anne plays hard to get with Bob, while Festus continues to pester her. She discovers that John sent Matilda away for honourable reasons (she'd previously thought he'd done it to elope with her), and writes him an apologetic letter, which he misinterprets as encouragement. Festus's uncle insists on telling Anne where he's hidden his will and other documents, but she drops the (cryptic) details in a field, where they're found by a mysterious woman. The invasion beacons are lit, although it's a false alarm. In the chaos Festus almost has Anne at his mercy in an isolated cottage. She escapes and is found by John. He finds Festus and beats him, but drunken Festus thinks he's Bob. John thinks he has a chance with Anne but discovers she's with Bob, so to cover his embarrassment he pretends to be in love with an unnamed actress at the Budmouth theatre. Pressed to show Anne and Bob his sweetheart, John buys them tickets for the play, which is also attended by the King and Queen, who are staying in Budmouth. Matilda appears on stage, and John's shocked expression is mistaken for passion. Festus, lurking as always, encounters Matilda (who is also the mysterious woman from earlier) out for a late-night walk. The press gang (naval recruiters who force men into service) are in town, and Festus and Matilda tip them off that Bob is an experienced sailor. The press gang come to the mill, but Bob escapes, with help from Matilda, who regrets her earlier action. Bob, however, feels increasing guilty about not serving his country. Discovering that John still loves Anne tips the balance, and Bob persuades local man Captain Hardy (real-life captain of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory) to take him on board, thus doing his duty and leaving the way clear for John. Anne goes to Portland Head to watch the Victory sail past. In Budmouth she sits crying, and is comforted by the King, who is passing by. The Loveday family endure a long wait for news of the Victory, eventually hearing of the Battle of Trafalgar, but not whether Bob has survived. Finally a sailor comes to tell them that Bob is unharmed – but also that he's engaged to a baker's daughter in Portsmouth. John sees his chance, but Anne rejects him. Meanwhile, Festus discovers that John, not Bob, beat him up, and courts Matilda in the mistaken belief that this will upset John. Over a year or more, Anne begins to warm to John, and he is ecstatic – until a letter comes from Bob, saying he still wants Anne. John tries to be cold towards Anne, but this only makes her warmer towards him, until she virtually proposes to him, just as Bob, newly promoted to Naval Lieutenant, writes to say he's coming home for her. Bob arrives and John withdraws. Anne rejects Bob, but he wears her down with his naval tales and fine uniform. However, when he makes his big move, she rejects him again, and he storms out. Anne is worried that he'll do something stupid, but is distracted by Squire Derriman, who arrives asking her to hide his deeds box, as Festus and his new fiancée Matilda are searching the house for it. She hides it in a window seat. Bob returns in good temper; he's been drinking with his new best friend, Festus. Anne yields to Bob, saying that if he can behave himself with the ladies for six months she'll be his. Then it turns out that Festus is waiting outside; he comes in, Anne flees, and watching from a hole in the floor of the room above, sees Squire Derriman sneak in and try to retrieve the box. Festus catches him, but Bob intervenes. Derriman snatches the box and disappears, with Festus and Matilda in pursuit. The next morning Squire Derriman is found dead from exhaustion, but the box has disappeared. It's eventually found hidden in Anne's room. Derriman has left all his property to Anne, except for a few small houses which will provide Festus with a living, but not luxury. Festus and Matilda are married, Anne and Bob are to be engaged, and John's regiment is posted away to battle in Spain, where, we are told, he will die. 

=====

Two On A Tower is a tale of star-crossed love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is eight years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardy's most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy. 

=====

The story takes place in a small woodland village called Little Hintock, and concerns the efforts of an honest woodsman, Giles Winterborne, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. Although they have been informally betrothed for some time, her father has made financial sacrifices to give his adored only child a superior education and no longer considers Giles good enough for her. When the new doctor – a well-born and handsome young man named Edred Fitzpiers – takes an interest in Grace, her father does all he can to make Grace forget Giles, and to encourage what he sees as a brilliant match. Grace has misgivings prior to the marriage as she sees a village woman (Suke Damson) coming out of his cottage very early in the morning and suspects he has been sleeping with her. She tells her father that she does not want to go on with the marriage and he becomes very angry. Later Fitzpiers tells her Suke has been to visit him because she was in agony from toothache and he extracted a molar. Grace clutches at this explanation - in fact Fitzpiers has started an affair with Suke some weeks previously. After the honeymoon, the couple take up residence in an unused wing of Melbury's house. Soon, however, Fitzpiers begins an affair with a rich widow named Mrs. Charmond, which Grace and her father discover. Grace finds out by chance that Suke Damson has a full set of teeth and realises that Fitzpiers lied to her. The couple become progressively more estranged and Fitzpiers is assaulted by his father-in-law after he accidentally reveals his true character to him. Both Suke Damson and Mrs Charmond turn up at Grace's house demanding to know whether Fitzpiers is all right - Grace addresses them both sarcastically as "Wives -all". Fitzpiers later deserts Grace and goes to the Continent with Mrs Charmond. Grace realises that she has only ever really loved Giles but as there is no possibility of divorce feels that her love seems hopeless. Melbury is told by a former legal clerk down on his luck that the law was changed in the previous year (making the setting of the action 1858) and divorce is now possible. He encourages Giles to resume his courtship of Grace. It later becomes apparent, however, that Fitzpiers' adultery is not sufficient for Grace to be entitled to a divorce. When Fitzpiers quarrels with Mrs. Charmond and returns to Little Hintock to try to reconcile with his wife, she flees the house and turns to Giles for help. He is still convalescing from a dangerous illness, but nobly allows her to sleep in his hut during stormy weather, whilst he insists on sleeping outside. As a result, he dies. Grace later allows herself to be won back to the (at least temporarily) repentant Fitzpiers, thus sealing her fate as the wife of an unworthy man. This is after Suke's husband Timothy Tangs has set a man trap to try to crush Fitzpiers' leg but it only tears Grace's skirt. No one is left to mourn Giles except a courageous peasant girl named Marty South, who has always loved him. Marty is a plain girl whose only attribute is her beautiful hair. She is persuaded to sell this at the start of the story to a barber who is procuring it for Mrs Charmond, after Marty realises that Giles loves Grace and not her. She precipitates the final quarrel between Fitzpiers and Mrs Charmond by writing to Fitzpiers and telling him of the origin of most of Mrs Charmond's hair. 

=====

On the opening night of Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre in January 1884, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner), ill from kidney disease, is barely able to make it to the theatre to conduct. He goes on a holiday to Continental Europe hoping that the rest will improve his health. While he is away, ticket sales and audiences at the Savoy Theatre wilt in the hot summer weather. Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte (Ron Cook) has called on Sullivan and the playwright W. S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) to create a new piece for the Savoy, but it is not ready when Ida closes. Until a new piece can be prepared, Carte revives an earlier Gilbert and Sullivan work, The Sorcerer. Gilbert's idea for their next opera features a transformative magic potion, which Sullivan feels is too similar to the magic lozenge and other magic talismans used in previous operasGilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer (1877) involved a magic love potion, and several of Gilbert's other works involved various magic devices that transform the possessor. See, e.g., Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack (1866). and mechanical in its reliance on a supernatural device. Sullivan, under pressure to write more serious music, says he longs for something that is "probable", involves "human interest", and is not dependent on magic. Gilbert sees nothing wrong with his libretto and refuses to write a new one, resulting in a standoff. The impasse is resolved after Gilbert and his wife visit a popular exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts in Knightsbridge, London.This scene in the film is anachronistic: Gilbert is shown in the film visiting the exhibition and getting inspiration for his play, but the real exhibition did not open until 1885, long after Gilbert sent Sullivan the first plot sketch of The Mikado in May 1884. When the katana sword he purchases there falls noisily off the wall of his study, he is inspired to write a libretto set in exotic Japan. Sullivan likes the idea and agrees to compose the music for it. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte work to make The Mikado a success, and many glimpses of rehearsals and stressful backstage preparations for the show follow: Cast members lunch together before negotiating their salaries. Gilbert brings in Japanese girls from the exhibition to teach the ladies' chorus how to walk and use fans in the Japanese manner. The principal cast react to the fittings of their costumes designed by C. Wilhelm. The cast objects to Gilbert's proposed cut of the title character's Act Two solo, "A more humane Mikado," which persuades the playwright to restore it. The actors face first-night jitters in their dressing rooms. Finally The Mikado is ready to open. As usual, Gilbert is too nervous to watch the opening performance and paces the streets of London. Returning to the theatre, however, he finds that the new opera is a resounding success. 

=====

Loot follows the fortunes of two young thieves, Hal and Dennis. Together they rob the bank next to the funeral parlour where Dennis works and return to Hal's home to hide the money. Hal's mother has just died and the money is hidden in her coffin while her body keeps on appearing around the house. Upon the arrival of Inspector Truscott, the plot becomes bizarre as Hal and Dennis try to keep him off their trail, aided by Nurse McMahon and to the despair of Hal's father, Mr. McLeavy. The play satirises the rituals of bereavement, and the mismatch between nominal standards of behaviour - religious and secular - and people's actual conduct. The police, as represented by Inspector Truscott, are depicted as venal and corrupt. As is typical of Orton's writing the humour of the dialogue arises from the contrast between the shocking and bizarre elements that punctuate what the characters say and the mechanically genteel utterance that predominates in their speech. 

=====

The key subplot is the drab uniformity of Brezhnev-era public architecture. This setting is explained in a humorous animated prologue, in which architects are overruled by politicians and red tape (director and animator - Vitaly Peskov). As a result, the identical, functional but unimaginative multistory apartment buildings found their way into every city, town, and suburb across the former Soviet Union. These buildings are completely uniform in every detail including the door key of each apartment.Frederick Edwin Ian Hamilton, Kaliopa Dimitrovska Andrews, Nataša Pichler-Milanović Transformation Of Cities In Central And Eastern Europe 2005 Page 159 "... industry started and by the early 1960s new housing districts built in five-storey blocks of modern industrialized panel construction had been established all around the socialist countries (e.g. in Moscow, popularly known as "Kruschevki")." Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya (a traditional public "sauna" bath) in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve. The friends all get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrey Myagkov) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a plane to Leningrad. Zhenya, on the other hand, is supposed to go home to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancée. Both Zhenya and Pavlik pass out. The remaining friends cannot remember which person from their group is supposed to catch the plane -thus they mistakenly send Zhenya on the plane instead of Pavlik. Zhenya spends the entire flight sleeping on the shoulder of his annoyed seatmate, played by the director himself (Ryazanov) in a brief comedic cameo appearance. The seatmate helps Zhenya get off the plane in Leningrad. Zhenya wakes up in the Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He stumbles into a taxi and, still quite drunk, gives the driver his address. It turns out that in Leningrad there is a street with the same name (3rd Builders' street), with a building at his address which looks exactly like Zhenya's. The key fits in the door of the apartment with the same number (as alluded to in the introductory narration, "...building standard apartments with standard locks"). Inside, even the furniture is nearly identical to that of Zhenya's apartment. Zhenya is too drunk to notice any minor differences, and goes to sleep. Later, the real tenant, Nadya Shevelyova (Barbara Brylska), arrives home to find a strange man sleeping in her bed. To make matters worse, Nadya’s fiancé, Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), arrives before Nadya can convince Zhenya to get up and leave. Ippolit becomes furious, refuses to believe Zhenya and Nadya's explanations, and storms out. Zhenya leaves to get back to Moscow but circumstances make him return repeatedly. Nadya wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, but there are no flights to Moscow until the next morning. Additionally, Zhenya tries repeatedly to call Moscow and explain to Galya what has happened. Eventually, he does contact her, but she is furious and hangs up on his call. Ippolit also calls Nadya's apartment and hears Zhenya answer. Although Zhenya is trying to be available to receive potential calls from Galya, Ippolit also refuses to accept the truth of the situation. It seems more and more clear that Zhenya and Nadya are the only two people who understand the night's circumstances. Thus, Zhenya and Nadya are compelled to spend New Year's Eve together. At first, they continue to treat each other with animosity, but gradually their behaviour softens and the two fall in love. In the morning, they feel that everything that has happened to them was a delusion, and they make the difficult decision to part. With a heavy heart, Zhenya returns to Moscow. Meanwhile, Nadya reconsiders everything and, deciding that she might have let her chance at happiness slip away, takes a plane to Moscow to find Zhenya. She has no difficulty finding him as their addresses are the same. 

=====

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, travels to the icy planet Exo-III to search for the exobiologist Dr. Roger Korby (played by Michael Strong). Korby is the fiancé of Dr. McCoy's temporary assistant, Nurse Christine Chapel, who signed on to the Enterprise to search for Korby. At Korby's request, Kirk and Chapel beam down alone to a cavern entrance, but Korby is not there to meet them. Finding this suspicious, Kirk has two security officers beamed down from the Enterprise. One is instructed to stay at the entrance and keep a look-out, and the other accompanies Kirk and Chapel. The three begin to descend into system of caves. When passing over a deep chasm, the security officer disappears. Shortly after, they meet Korby's aide Dr. Brown. Chapel recognizes him but is surprised the man does not remember her. Brown assures them that the security officer fell by accident and is dead, and the three continue on. Kirk contacts the remaining security officer and tells him to contact the Enterprise for reinforcements, but a strange creature kills the officer before he gets the chance. Meanwhile, Kirk, Chapel and Brown find Korby, who tells them that the caves were left by an extinct race. Korby shows Kirk and Chapel machinery which creates androids. With the help of Ruk (played by Ted Cassidy), a still functioning android from the time of the original inhabitants, Korby has created more androids, one being a lovely woman he calls "Andrea". In reality, Brown is also an android created as a prototype for Korby's plan to replace key personnel in the Federation with android duplicates under his control. It is also revealed that Ruk was the one who killed the security officers. Korby proceeds to create an exact android duplicate of Kirk as Chapel looks on. As Kirk's personality is imprinted on the android, the real Kirk imagines himself insulting Spock as a "half-breed". Korby has the duplicate Kirk beamed aboard the Enterprise with orders to begin the spread of android duplicates throughout the galaxy. When Spock questions the Kirk-android's orders, it repeats the insult Kirk had used. Spock, realizing that this is not Kirk, forms a security team and follows the Kirk-android back down to Exo-III. Meanwhile, the real Kirk, guarded by Ruk, convinces the android that Korby is a threat to his continued existence and must be destroyed. Ruk begins to recall the clash between the "Old Ones" and the androids that led to his civilization's demise centuries ago, and concludes that conflict is again inevitable. Korby enters and Ruk confronts him, but Korby destroys Ruk with a phaser. Shortly afterwards, in a struggle with Kirk, the skin of Korby's hand is torn, revealing that he is also an android. It is now revealed that Korby, dying of frostbite, had transferred his mind to an android body. He begs Chapel to believe that he is still the same man, but Chapel is repelled by what he has done to himself. Andrea, realizing she loves Korby, kisses him, and in despair, Korby fires Andrea's phaser between the embracing pair, destroying them both. Spock arrives with the security force, but finds that the crisis has passed. When Spock inquires about Dr. Korby's whereabouts, Kirk replies, "Dr. Korby was never here." In the end, Chapel decides to stay on with the Enterprise and finish out her tour of duty. 

=====

Shadow Raiders is set in a five-planet star system known as the Cluster. The four inhabited planets are in a constant state of war, always raiding one another for resources unique to each planet. However, when an alien named Tekla comes from another solar system, she brings a warning: the Beast Planet is coming. Now Graveheart, a humble miner of Planet Rock, must convince the leaders of Fire, Rock, Bone, and Ice to put aside their differences and stand together against the Beast, their new common enemy. The story begins as Tekla's homeworld of Planet Tek is consumed by the Beast Planet. She and her robotic companion, Voxx, escape to the Cluster through a Beast jump portal to warn them of the impending danger. Tekla is pursued by Beast drones and crash-lands on Planet Ice, where she is rescued by Graveheart. The drones subsequently attack and slaughter the combined forces of Rock and Ice in the area, leaving only Tekla, Graveheart, and Ice King Cryos. The threat convinces Cryos and Graveheart to form an alliance of the Cluster worlds against the Beast Planet. The first season revolves around the efforts of Graveheart, who has become the de facto leader of the Alliance, to convince the leaders of the other Cluster worlds to join the Alliance. The first planet they visit is his home planet, Planet Rock, but Lord Mantel stubbornly refuses to ally himself with the other worlds after Rock's Battle Moons repel a Beast attack. Graveheart's friend and captain of the Royal Guard, Jade, joins him to help rally planets Fire and Bone to his cause. Fire and Bone join the Alliance. The Beast forces are tracked to the dead world of Remora, converted into a fortress by the Beast drones. An attack by the combined forces of Ice, Fire, and Bone, with some timely intervention by Rock's Battle Moons, sees the destruction of Remora. However, this only serves to anger the Beast Planet, which emerges from within the Cluster's star and proves its superiority by destroying one of the Battle Moons with a single blast from halfway across the system. It then unleashes its wrath upon the nearest planet; Fire. The second season focuses on the Alliance's efforts to avoid the unstoppable Beast Planet. Each world in the Cluster is discovered to be equipped with "World Engines", massive drive systems which can propel the planets through space. Using these, the worlds of the Cluster flee the Beast; Fire's engine is damaged and the planet is thus sacrificed in a futile attempt to stop the Beast. Fire's population is moved to the remaining Battle Moons, now down to three following the battle to save Fire. On their journey, they discover Planet Sand, which joins the Alliance, and Planet Jungle, which the Alliance blows up when the Beast tries to consume it; this, too, proves useless. The plants of Jungle live on as a single cutting which is given to Emperor Femur of Bone. The finale introduces the Prison Planet, a teleport world used as a penal colony. Graveheart and Cryos are captured by a faction of convicts led by Jewelia, a devious woman who takes a liking to Graveheart. Femur and Jade are taken by a second faction commanded by Sternum, Femur's nobler brother, from whom Femur stole the throne of Planet Bone. Convinced that their friends have been slain by the other faction, the two pairs join the fight on the side of their respective faction until the truth is revealed. Meanwhile, Lord Mantel takes control of the Alliance by force, convinced that his forces are superior to the Beast. His arrogance nearly dooms the Alliance and costs Mantel his life when Blokk invades Rock and kills him in single combat. As the Beast Planet is about to consume Planet Rock, the Prison Planet teleports into its path. Graveheart and his group use Sternum's Telepod to travel to Rock. Sternum then teleports the Prison Planet out of the system, taking the Beast Planet with it. A final battle between Graveheart and Blokk results in Blokk's demise, Jade's rise to ruler of Planet Rock, and the Alliance's new era of peace. However, the story ends with a scene in a distant part of the galaxy, moments before the destruction of Planet Reptizar at the hands of the Beast Planet. Although the show ended after its second season, a proposed third would have answered major questions, like the origin of the Beast Planet. 

=====

Cheung plays Emily Wang, a former video jockey, who has been in a tempestuous relationship for several years with Lee Hauser (played by James Johnston of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), a rock musician. Lee's friends feel that Emily is bad for him, describing her as a junkie. Their young son, Jay, is living in Vancouver with Lee's parents. As the film opens, the pair have arrived in Hamilton, Canada, to see Metric perform. Following an argument in their motel room, Emily walks out and, after taking heroin, falls asleep in her car. When she returns the following morning, she finds that Lee has died of a drug overdose, and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating. As Emily attempts to force her way into the room, the police find heroin in her bag and she is arrested. Emily spends six months in jail and, upon release, discovers that custody of her son has been awarded to Lee's parents. She resolves to return to Paris, where she used to live. Before leaving, she briefly meets Albrecht, Lee's father (played by Nick Nolte), who tells her that he would prefer that she not see Jay for a few years. In Paris, Emily begins work in a Chinese restaurant owned by relatives but does not enjoy it. She has become addicted to methadone and relies on her friends for prescriptions. Meanwhile, Lee's mother, Rosemary (played by Martha Henry) falls ill and she and Albrecht travel to London with Jay for medical treatment. While they are there, Albrecht decides to take Jay to meet Emily, but the boy has been told by his grandmother that Emily was responsible for his father's death and does not want to see her. Emily eventually decides that she must get clean in order to be able to spend time with her son. She stops taking methadone and prepares for Jay's arrival. When the boy eventually meets her, she takes him to a zoo and explains her relationship with his father and why they took drugs. Emily also has become a singer; when she is given the opportunity arising from meeting a fellow musician in prison, she must make some serious decisions about her life. 

=====

It is grandmother Hatsu's birthday. She wants everyone home early for her special day: the day that serves as a reminder that she has been alive for more years than she can remember. Unfortunately, her family has completely forgotten to make up last-minute birthday promises to Hatsu. The game begins like any other normal day for the family members - father Taneo, mother Etsuko, daughter Ririka, and son Tsuyoshi - until strings of events stand as obstacles in their way of returning to Hatsu's with the presents. Taneo dancing with his peers. The first family member to be focused on is father Taneo, who is routinely working in his office (albeit quite tiredly) when suddenly he is ordered to dance by his supervisor along with his peers. After doing so in quite a frenzy, his co-workers then run off, looking quite scared and seem to be running away from something. Taneo turns round to investigate, when he sees a giant boulder-like statue part (which was being placed onto a statue nearby, but accidentally came off) come crashing through the wall; and is forced to run down corridors from it, until he reaches the safety of an elevator which he uses to descend. However, the boulder comes crashing from above, shooting debris down while Taneo desperately works on activating an emergency stop. Eventually, the boulder also shoots down onto the elevator, and in an explosion, Taneo is shot out of the window. Falling to certain death, Taneo luckily grabs onto a flagpole - but unfortunately, it cannot take his weight, and thus Taneo falls once more; but various things slow his descent, and he lands safely. The boulder emerges again through the building's main entrance, but he easily evades it - not long after though, a piece of the statue which was holding the flagpole lands on his head, knocking him unconscious. He later wakes up in an ambulance, strapped to a stretcher while the paramedics ask him questions to check his thinking state. After answering the questions correctly, they accidentally send Taneo - still strapped to the stretcher - out of the ambulance and into the traffic, due to their over-excitement. However, Taneo successfully dodges the traffic and breaks free of his restraints; but when he does so, he crashes into the boulder from before (which miraculously appears). When he recovers, he is helped by an attractive lady, who soon leaves him. Taneo, seemingly in love, follows her onto a Ferris wheel and gives her an erotic back-massage (in this scene, the two characters are only heard but not seen. In the North American version, it is said to be a "back massage", but in the Japanese original, it was hinted at it being a far more sexual act, and although the American version downplayed this, the female still belts out orgasmic-sounding screams when Taneo is successful). Afterwards, she suddenly jumps from the Ferris wheel and onto a helicopter, before pointing out she left a bomb behind Taneo. The bomb explodes, sending Taneo onto the helicopter. Soon he makes it off and sees a UFO, which two navy ships are trying to destroy - for some reason however, Taneo commandeers a turret and shoots down their missiles, saving the UFO. Eventually, Taneo himself is shot upon by a missile, exploding the turret and sending him high into the sky - but somehow lands safely and gets onto a boat. He gets curious about a block on the boat and removes it, which unwittingly starts sinking the boat. Taneo and the boat owner successfully block the hole and get back to shore, where Taneo decides to take an underground train (possibly to avoid any more madness). Once boarding the train, he finds it strangely empty, and the attractive woman from before appears, revealing she has cut the brakes of the train. The train crashes into various blockings on the tracks and shoots up from the underground, where Taneo finds himself miraculously outside of Hatsu's house. The second family member to be focused on is mother Etsuko, who is out buying ingredients for Hatsu's birthday dinner. She soon visits the bank, where she finds it to be in the process of being robbed, but manages to sneak out without being noticed until the last minute. The bank robbers choose to use Etsuko to investigate the money vault, and she is ordered to take a golden piggy-bank, which she finds booby-trapped and thus must replace its weight using the ingredients she has bought thus far. After doing so, she gives it to her captors; who force her to open it by inputting musical commands which two of the bank robbers demonstrate. Once done, they unexpectedly find it open up and transform into a deadly machine, firing off lasers. Etsuko manages to remove its head however using one of her ingredients, and it explodes, throwing her and the bank robbers to the back of the bank and onto a long area of snow. The bank robbers try to shoot her down (possibly because she's a key witness to the crime), but she manages to speed off ahead, and accidentally lands into a gorge. Sometime later, Etsuko awakens in a secret military air jet hangar, where she decides to pilot a jet to get back home. After take off, she discovers that a giant bear (which has a large sign of Ririka on) is roaming and destroying the city; and being the only fighter jet remaining in the sky, she is forced to shoot it down, and succeeds. After its defeat, she returns to Hatsu's house with the ingredients, declaring "Sukiyaki" for dinner. The third family member to be focused on is son Tsuyoshi, who is out reading in a park-like area. To his amazement, he witnesses a teddy bear grow to giant size not too far away (the same bear that Etsuko encountered) which gives off pink rays - one of which comes into contact with Tsuyoshi and shrinks him to miniature ant-like size. To his horror, he is forced to run away from the ants while avoiding mudslides, spiders, and an encounter with a shrunken boat owner like his dad. Family members: Ririka, Etsuko, Hatsu, Taneo, and Tsuyoshi. The final family member to be focused on is daughter Ririka, who is going to her private girls' school. Once she is in her home room, her friend shows her a new store. Wanting to go there, Ririka makes her classmates switch seats (Many of who get knocked out by chalk sticks thrown by the teacher) so she can get to the exit. Once she's at the shop, Ririka buys a total of 4 things that are on sale. She leaves the shop, but while walking back to class, (And probably getting an inevitable chalk smash) she spots a "Take a picture on a bear" machine outside the local Teddy Bear store. While she's getting ready to have hers taken, something similar to a tiny UFO appears and gives the picture an unfortunate angry frown. Ririka yells at the UFO and tries to capture it, but it shoots out purple beams, one hitting the teddy bear dispensed out of the machine. It starts growing while Ririka chases the small UFO into a building, where her friend comes through a door and says, "Ririka! Come sing with us!", starting a minigame taken out for the English version. Ririka then chases the UFO outside, and past a big TV screen where she grabs the UFO. After seeing the mothership on the screen, she calls her dad, Taneo, and tells him to shoot the missiles heading for the mothership after blackmailing him by telling that she wouldn't clean her room ever again. After Taneo agrees, Ririka goes to the screen and plays a game of Simon says by pressing the colors on the small UFO matching the flashing colors of the mothership, interrupted by a "Please Wait" sign and a news story of the giant teddy bear attacking Tokyo, the bank robbery Etsuko witnessed, and the big boulder with Ririka's teacher throwing chalk at it. After that, she goes into the subway and finds a mask belonging to the mysterious woman Taneo encountered, to whom she returns it. She arrives at a bay and rides the boat that her brother and dad rode, also almost sinking it. After Ririka gets to her destination, she gets a delivery bike leaning against a wall and rides away from a crane/bulldozer manned by the bank robbers and the woman Taneo encountered, the lady in red. After that she gets off the street, Ririka and her bike are lifted up, into the mothership, past a famous scene from E.T., crossing the moon. Ririka is unbeamed in front of her house, surprising Hatsu for the last time after Ririka says "Hi mom!" 

=====

Kaoru Hanabishi, a university student, is the eldest son of Yūji Hanabishi, the head of the Hanabishi Zaibatsu, and was set to take over the zaibatsu after his father retired. His mother, Kumi Honjō, and his father never married, making life difficult for both him and his mother. Kaoru's father died when he was five years old. After that, Yūji's father, Gen'ichiro Hanabishi, took Kaoru under his wing and began educating him for the eventual succession. However, Kaoru never felt at home in the Hanabishi family and exiled himself after his mother's death. Day by day he felt alone, thinking that he was living life with no reason pushing him on. There was, however, a person who loved Kaoru so much that she felt had to do whatever was necessary to be with him. Her name is Aoi Sakuraba. Aoi is the only daughter of the owner of the Sakuraba Dry Goods Store (later renamed to Sakuraba Department Store). Kaoru's family and Aoi's family had expected for Kaoru to marry Aoi, but after Kaoru left, the marriage was canceled. Both families had a friendly relationship, and unbeknownst to Kaoru, Aoi had been in love with him from the start. The Sakuraba family had already been searching for someone suitable, but Aoi was unwilling to marry someone else and walked out, chasing Kaoru. Both were freed from their families' affairs but did not know how to make their living. Miyabi Kagurazaki, Aoi's caretaker, has Aoi live with her in a grand western-style summer mansion owned by the Sakuraba family, with Kaoru living in a house for servants next to it to prevent a scandal as with the previous. They are soon joined by Tina Foster, an American expatriate; Taeko Minazuki, a clumsy housekeeper; Mayu Miyuki, Kaoru's childhood friend; and Chika Minazuki, Taeko's cousin. The house is eventually converted to a dormitory and Aoi becomes its landlady. Eventually, Miyabi helps Kaoru reconcile with the Hanabishis and patch up the original engagement. However, Kaoru's half brother attempts to gain control of the Hanabishi Zaibatsu by proposing to Aoi. After Kaoru foils the proposal, Aoi abandons her family name and Kaoru gives the ownership of Hanabishi Zaibatsu to his half-brother. Five years later, Kaoru and Aoi are married. 

=====

In Gorham, Kansas, circa 1936, itinerant con man Moses Pray meets nine-year-old Addie Loggins at her mother's graveside service, where the neighbors suspect he is Addie's father. He denies this, but agrees to deliver the orphaned Addie to her aunt's home in St. Joseph, Missouri. At a local grain mill, Moses convinces the brother of the man who accidentally killed Addie's mother to give him $200 for the newly orphaned Addie. Addie overhears this conversation and, after Moses spends nearly half the money fixing his old Model A convertible and buying her a train ticket, she demands the money as rightfully hers, whereupon Moses agrees to let Addie travel with him until he has raised back the full $200 to give to her. Thereafter Moses visits recently-widowed women, pretending to have previously sold expensive, personalized Bibles to their deceased husbands, and the widows pay him for the Bibles inscribed with their names. Addie joins the scam, pretending she is his daughter, and exhibits a talent for confidence tricks, cheating a cotton candy vendor out of a large sum of money. As time passes, Moses and Addie become a formidable team. One night, Addie and "Moze" (as Addie addresses him) stop at a local carnival, where Moze becomes enthralled with an "exotic dancer" named Miss Trixie Delight and leaves Addie at a photo booth to have her photograph taken alone (of herself sitting on a crescent moon, to suggest the film's title). Much to Addie's chagrin, Moze invites "Miss Trixie"--and her downtrodden African American teenage maid Imogene--to join Addie and him. Addie soon becomes friends with Imogene and becomes jealous of Trixie. When Addie subsequently discovers that Moze has spent their money on a brand-new Model 68 convertible to impress Miss Trixie, she and Imogene devise a plan. They convince a clerk at the hotel where the group is staying to visit Trixie. Addie then sends Moze up to Trixie's room, where he discovers the clerk and Trixie having sex. Moze promptly leaves Miss Trixie and Imogene behind, while Addie leaves Imogene enough money to pay for her own passage home. While staying at another hotel in a rural area, Moze uncovers a bootlegger's store full of whiskey, steals some of it, and sells it back to the bootlegger. Unfortunately the bootlegger's twin brother is the local sheriff, who has spotted them stealing and quickly arrests Addie and Moze. Addie hides their money in her hat, steals back the key to their car, and the pair escape. To elude pursuit, they trade their new car for a decrepit Model T farm truck after Moze beats a hillbilly, Leroy, in a "rasslin' match". Moze and Addie make it across the state line to Missouri, where Moze sets up another swindle, only to be caught again by the sheriff and his deputies; outside of their jurisdiction and unable to make an arrest, they beat Moze up and rob him of his and Addie's savings. Humiliated and defeated, Moze drops Addie at the house of her aunt in St. Joseph, but a disappointed Addie rejoins him on the road. When he refuses her company, she reminds him that he still owes her $200 and points out that his truck has just rolled away without him. They catch the truck and leave together. 

=====

Martin Vail is a Chicago defense attorney who loves the spotlight, and does everything that he can to get his high-profile clients acquitted on legal technicalities. One day he sees a news report about the arrest of Aaron Stampler, a 19-year-old altar boy from Kentucky with a severe stutter, who is accused of brutally murdering the beloved Archbishop Rushman. Vail jumps at the chance to represent the young man, pro bono. During his meetings at the County jail with Stampler, Vail comes to believe that his client is innocent, much to the chagrin of Vail's former lover, prosecutor Janet Venable. As the trial begins, Vail discovers that powerful civic leaders, including the corrupt state's attorney John Shaughnessy, recently lost millions of dollars in real estate investments due to a decision by the Archbishop not to develop on certain church-owned lands. The Archbishop secretly received numerous death threats as a result. Following a tip from a former altar boy about a videotape involving Stampler, Vail makes a search of the Archbishop's apartment and finds a VHS tape shot by Rushman that shows Stampler being sexually abused with another teenage altar boy and a teenage girl named Linda Forbes. Vail is now in a dilemma: introducing this evidence would make Stampler more sympathetic to the jury, but it would also give him a motive for the murder—which Venable has been unable to establish. When Vail confronts his client and accuses him of having lied, Stampler breaks down crying and suddenly transforms into a new persona: a violent sociopath who calls himself “Roy.” "Roy" confesses to the murder of the Archbishop, and threatens Vail. When this incident is over Stampler once again becomes passive and shy, and appears to have no recollection of the personality switch - what he calls having "lost time." Molly Arrington, the psychiatrist examining Stampler who witnessed the entire event, is convinced that he has dissociative identity disorder, caused by years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his father and Archbishop Rushman, respectively. Vail does not want to hear this, because he knows that he cannot enter an insanity plea during an ongoing trial. Vail slowly sets up a confrontation in court by dropping hints about the Archbishop's abusive tendencies, as well as Stampler's multiple personalities. He also has the abuse tape delivered to Venable, knowing that she will realize who sent it—since she is under intense pressure from both Shaughnessy and her boss Bud Yancy to deliver a guilty verdict at any cost—and will use it as proof of motive. At the climax, Vail puts Stampler on the witness stand and gently questions him about the sexual abuse he suffered at Rushman's hands. He also introduces evidence that Shaughnessy and Yancy had covered up evidence of Rushman molesting another young man. After Venable questions him harshly during cross-examination, Stampler turns into "Roy" in open court and attacks her, threatening to snap her neck if anyone comes near him. He is subdued by courthouse marshals and rushed back to his holding cell. The judge dismisses the jury in favor of a bench trial and then finds Stampler not guilty by reason of insanity, remanding him to a maximum security mental hospital. Venable is fired for losing the case, and for allowing Rushman’s crimes to be publicly exposed. Vail visits Stampler in his cell to tell him of the dismissal. Stampler claims to have no recollection of what happened in the courtroom, having again "lost time." However, as Vail is leaving, Stampler asks him to "tell Miss Venable I hope her neck is okay", which he could not have been able to remember if he had "lost time." When Vail confronts him, Stampler reveals that he had faked personality disorder. No longer stuttering, he brags about having murdered Rushman, as well as Linda, his girlfriend. When Vail asks if there ever was a "Roy", Stampler replies that "there never was an 'Aaron.'" Stunned and disillusioned, Vail walks away and leaves the courthouse as Stampler taunts him from his cell. 

=====

Elder Aaron Davis, a young Mormon from Pocatello, Idaho, is sent to Los Angeles with three other missionaries to spread the Mormon faith. They move into an apartment next to openly gay party boy Christian Markelli and his roommate Julie, an aspiring singer. Christian and Julie work as waiters at Lila's, a trendy restaurant owned by retired actress Lila Montagne. Christian makes a bet with his co-workers that he can seduce one of the Mormons, and soon realizes that Aaron, the most inexperienced missionary, is a closeted homosexual. Aaron and Christian become acquainted after several encounters in the apartment complex. When Christian accidentally cuts himself on a metal hose reel and faints, Aaron helps him indoors and cleans his wound. Christian attempts to seduce Aaron, but the hesitant Mormon becomes upset by Christian's remark that sex "doesn't have to mean anything." Aaron accuses him of being shallow and walks out. Worried that Aaron is correct, Christian joins Project Angel Food, delivering meals to people with AIDS. Aaron's fellow missionary, Paul Ryder, has a cycling accident. Returning to his apartment, a distraught Aaron encounters Christian, who tries to comfort him with a hug. Both men are overwhelmed by their feelings and end up kissing, failing to notice the return of Aaron's roommates. Aaron is sent home in disgrace, leading Christian to confront Ryder, who is angry that Christian corrupted Aaron for no reason. Christian admits that he initially just wanted to win a bet, but says "it's not about that" anymore. Recognizing Christian's distress, Ryder tells him that Aaron's flight has a five-hour layover in Salt Lake City. Christian finds Aaron standing in the snow outside the airport terminal. Christian confesses his love, and despite his misgivings, Aaron admits his own feelings of love. With all flights canceled due to a snowstorm, Christian and Aaron spend an intimate night in a motel. When Christian awakes, he finds Aaron gone. Aaron's pocket watch, a family heirloom, has been left behind. Christian returns to Los Angeles. In Idaho, Aaron is excommunicated by the church elders, led by his own father, Farron, who is the stake president. Aaron is rejected by his father and scolded by his mother, who tells him that he needs to pray for forgiveness. When Aaron suggests that he might be gay, his mother slaps him. Overwhelmed by despair, Aaron attempts suicide. He is subsequently sent by his parents to a treatment facility to be cured of his homosexuality. Christian is desperate to find Aaron and locates his home address and phone number. Aaron's mother informs him that "Thanks to you, my son took a razor to his wrists; thanks to you I have lost my son." Believing that Aaron is dead, Christian spends the next few days thinking continually about Aaron. Julie discovers an entry about Christian's feelings in his cellphone journal and uses it as the basis for her new song. Christian travels to the Davis home in Idaho, where he tearfully returns Aaron's watch to his mother. During an encounter with Julie, she hesitantly shows him her new video, which upsets Christian, realizing that part of the lyrics came from his personal journal without his consent. Julie tells Christian that she hoped something good would come from it. In the treatment facility, Aaron hears a female voice singing and investigates. He discovers a music video playing on television, the song performed by Julie. The video prompts Aaron to return to Los Angeles in search of Christian. Upon arriving at Christian's apartment, Aaron is heartbroken when a stranger answers the door. Thinking that Christian has returned to his party boy ways and moved on, and having nowhere else to go, Aaron makes his way to Lila's restaurant, having befriended the owner while on missionary work after her life partner died. Christian, who happens to be working there, comes out and is overjoyed to see Aaron alive. They reconcile and later celebrate Thanksgiving with Christian's co-workers. Lila tells everyone that, no matter what, they will always have "a place at my table, and a place in my heart". 

=====

The USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain Kirk, makes a supply run to planet Tantalus V, a colony where the criminally insane are confined for treatment. The facility's director is Dr. Tristan Adams, a psychiatrist famous for advocating more humane treatment of such patients. After the Enterprise delivers supplies and receives cargo from Tantalus, a man emerges from the container taken aboard and assaults a technician. Reaching the bridge, the intruder demands asylum, but Spock subdues him with a Vulcan nerve pinch. In sickbay, the intruder identifies himself as Simon van Gelder, and a computer check reveals that he is not a patient, but Dr. Adams' assistant. When they inform Tantalus of van Gelder's capture, Dr. Adams claims that van Gelder's testing of an experimental treatment device on himself is responsible for his disturbed condition. McCoy, suspicious, urges Kirk to investigate. Kirk transports down to the colony with one of the ship's psychiatrists, Dr. Helen Noel. Adams introduces them to a strangely emotionless therapist, Lethe, and gives Kirk and Noel a tour of the colony. Although he is affable and accommodating, his staff, like Lethe, all seem lacking in affect. Adams shows Kirk and Noel the treatment device he referred to: a "neural neutralizer". He claims that the machine, harmless at low intensity, is used only to calm agitated inmates. Noel is satisfied with his explanation, but Kirk remains suspicious. On the Enterprise van Gelder becomes increasingly frantic, warning that the landing party is in danger, but when he tries to explain the danger and refers to the neural neutralizer, he is convulsed with pain. Spock mind-melds with van Gelder to enable him to tell his story. Spock learns that the neural neutralizer can empty a mind of thoughts, leaving only an unbearable feeling of loneliness, and that Adams has been using it on inmates and staff to gain total control of their minds. The first officer assembles a security team, but the colony's force field blocks transport and communication. Unaware of events on the ship, Kirk decides to test the neutralizer on himself, with Noel at the controls. She finds that she can easily implant thoughts into Kirk's mind, even altering his memory of a recent Christmas-party encounter between the two of them. Adams appears, overpowers Noel, seizes the controls, increases the neutralizer's intensity, and proceeds to convince Kirk that he has been madly in love with Noel for years. Kirk and Noel are then confined to quarters. On Kirk's orders, Noel enters the facility's physical plant through a ventilation duct, and interrupts Kirk's next neutralizer session by shutting off power to the entire complex. Freed from the neutralizer, Kirk attacks Adams, leaving him alone and unconscious in the treatment room. A guard discovers Noel's sabotage, but she kicks him into the circuitry, electrocuting him. With the force field now off, Spock beams down to the planet, disables the force field, and restores power to the colony. This reactivates the neural neutralizer, which empties Adams' mind completely, killing him. Back on the Enterprise, Kirk is informed that van Gelder has destroyed the neural neutralizer. McCoy is surprised that loneliness could be lethal, but Kirk, after his experience, is not. 

=====

Timothy "Tim" Warden, ag boy with autism, has supposedly witnessed his parents'rurhles murder. Jake Rainer, a former child psychiatrist turned therapist, is called on to probe the child's mind in order to solve the case. The psychological drama is provided by the fact that not even Jake can entice Tim to communicate what he has or has not seen regarding the crime. Tim's sister, Sylvie, is protective of him. She eventually warms to Jake's efforts, but is concerned when she learns he was implicated in the suicide of another young child who was under his care. Jake gradually befriends Tim. At first, Jake thinks that Tim is trying to communicate by cutting up playing cards, but Sylvie reveals that Tim is good at mimicking voices. Jake is able to trigger Tim's memory so that Tim mimics the voices he heard on the night of the murder by using the trigger phrase "God Damn," which were the first words Tim heard from the murder. He attempts to piece together the chronology of the murder, suspecting that Tim interrupted a fight between his parents and an intruder. Sheriff Mitch Rivers threatens to use drugs to get Tim to talk about the murder and Dr. Rene Harlinger successfully hypnotizes Tim into breaking down a locked door. The police chief, seeing this as proof of Tim's strength, concludes that Tim was the murderer, after finding photographs showing that Tim's father was molesting him. That night, Sylvie plans to take Tim away and attempts to convince Jake to run away with them. She fails, and instead panickedly paralyzes Jake and throws him into an icy lake to drown him. Tim mimics the police chief's voice through the phone to lure Sylvie to the police station and pulls Jake out of the lake while she is away. Sylvie returns and Jake reveals that he has solved the mystery by examining Tim's cut up playing cards. It was actually Sylvie who killed her parents because her father had raped her repeatedly and was trying to do the same to Tim, and her mother was aware of the abuse and stayed silent the entire time. Sylvie tearfully tries to kill Jake again to stop other people from learning about her secret, but is persuaded not to do so by Tim who speaks with his own voice for the first time. Jake, his wife Karen, and Tim go out for trick-or-treating on Halloween. Tim has gradually improved and now can speak in his own voice as well as smile. Jake's conversation with his wife reveals that Sylvie will be moved to a mental hospital with minimum security in the near future. 

=====

Veteran San Francisco police inspector Jack Cates has been after drug dealer "the Iceman" for the past four years. At the Hunter's Point Raceway, Jack confronts Tyrone Burroughs and Arthur Brock. Jack kills Brock, while Burroughs escapes. Despite killing Brock in self-defense, Jack is now under investigation, as Brock's gun cannot be found at the scene. Blake Wilson, the head of the Internal Affairs division, becomes determined to prosecute Jack on a third-degree manslaughter charge. Jack finds a picture that proves that the Iceman has put a price on the head of Reggie Hammond, who is scheduled to be released from prison the next day. Reggie has completed his prison term for robbing a payroll (a crime for which he claims complete innocence), and is scheduled to be released. Jack tries to convince Reggie to help him clear his name and find the Iceman. Reggie requests that Jack gives him the $500,000 that Jack has been holding on to for him. Jack refuses to give Reggie the money unless Reggie helps him. After the bus transporting Reggie is attacked by two bikers and Jack gets shot, Jack forces Reggie to help him by having the hospital release Reggie into his custody. Reggie recognizes one of the two bikers as Richard "Cherry" Ganz, the brother of Albert Ganz, the escaped convict Jack killed years earlier. Cherry and his partner Willie Hickok are the hitmen who have been hired to kill Reggie. Burroughs, who works for the Iceman, was trying to hire Brock as insurance, just in case Cherry and Hickok failed. When the Iceman murders Cherry and Hickok's primary contact man, Malcolm Price, Hickok kills Burroughs, after the latter reveals himself to be an associate for the Iceman. Reggie is captured by Cherry and Hickok, and Jack confronts the two criminals at a local nightclub where Ben Kehoe—Jack's friend and fellow officer—is revealed to be the Iceman, with another detective, Frank Cruise, serving as an accomplice. A gunfight ensues, with Jack wounding Hickok and killing Cruise. After killing both Hickok and Cherry, Reggie is held captive by Kehoe and used as a human shield. Reggie sarcastically begs Jack to shoot him. Jack does so, firing a shot into Reggie's shoulder, wounding him and throwing him off Kehoe. Jack then shoots Kehoe, killing him. Before Reggie is transported to the hospital, he and Jack share a few parting words. As the ambulance leaves with Reggie, Jack realizes that Reggie has once again stolen his lighter. 

=====

At the Central Park Zoo in New York City, Serbian-born fashion illustrator Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) makes sketches of a black panther. She catches the attention of marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), who strikes up a conversation. Irena invites him to her apartment for tea. At her apartment, Oliver is intrigued by a statue of a medieval warrior on horseback impaling a large cat with his sword. Irena informs Oliver that the figure is King John of Serbia and that the cat represents evil. According to legend, long ago, the Christian residents of her home village gradually turned to witchcraft and devil-worship after being enslaved by the Mameluks. When King John drove the Mameluks out and saw what the villagers had become, he had them killed. However, "the wisest and the most wicked" escaped into the mountains. Oliver is dismissive of the legend even though Irena clearly takes it seriously. Oliver buys her a kitten, but upon meeting her, it hisses. Irena suggests they go to the pet shop to exchange it. When they enter the shop, the animals go wild in her presence, and Irena becomes uneasy. Irena gradually reveals to Oliver that she believes she is descended from the cat people of her village, and that she will transform into a panther if aroused to passion. Despite this, Oliver asks her to marry him, and she agrees. However, during the dinner after their wedding at The Belgrade, a Serbian restaurant, a cat- like woman walks over and addresses Irena as moya sestra ("my sister"). Irena never consummates the marriage, fearful of the consequences. Oliver is patient with her, but eventually persuades her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). Judd tries to convince her that her fears stem from childhood traumas. Meanwhile, Irena is unhappy to discover that Oliver has confided in his assistant, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph). Alice confesses to Oliver that she loves him. When Irena chances to see Oliver and Alice seated together at a restaurant, she follows Alice home. Just as Alice hears a menacing sound, a bus pulls up and she boards it. Soon after, a groundskeeper discovers several freshly killed sheep. The paw prints leading away turn into imprints of a woman's shoes. Irena returns to her apartment looking dishevelled and exhausted; she is shown shortly afterwards weeping in the bathtub. Irena dreams of Dr. Judd dressed up as King John speaking of "the key". She later steals the key to the panther's cage in Central Park. Irena, Oliver and Alice visit a museum, and Irena is angered when the two virtually ignore her. That evening, when Alice decides to use the basement swimming pool of her apartment building, she is stalked by an animal. When Alice screams for help, Irena appears, turning on the lights, and says she is looking for Oliver. Alice later finds her bathrobe torn to shreds. After an appointment with Dr. Judd, Irena tells Oliver that she is no longer afraid, but Oliver tells her it is too late: he has realized that he loves Alice and intends to divorce Irena. Later at work, Oliver and Alice are cornered by a snarling animal. Oliver and Alice manage to get out of the building but not before smelling Irena's perfume. Alice calls Judd to warn him to stay away from Irena, but he hangs up when Irena arrives for her appointment with him. He kisses Irena passionately, resulting in her transformation into a panther who attacks and kills him. When Oliver and Alice arrive at Judd's office, Irena slips away and goes to the zoo. There, she opens the panther's cage with the stolen key and is struck down by the escaping panther, which is accidentally run down and killed by a car. Next to the panther's cage, Oliver and Alice find a dead panther lying on the ground. Oliver says, "She never lied to us." 

=====

A prologue set in an undisclosed, primitive human settlement shows a sacrificial maiden being tied to a tree. A black panther approaches and rests its paws on her, and the scene fades to black. Another girl with feline features approaches a similar big cat in a cave, without incurring its attack. A close-up of her face segues to that of similarly featured Irena Gallier, who travels to present-day New Orleans from Canada to reconnect with her brother Paul. Irena was raised in foster care after they were orphaned. Paul spent his childhood in psych wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole housekeeper Female. That night, a prostitute named Ruthie walks into a fleabag motel to meet a john, but instead finds a melanistic leopard that mauls her foot. The police and zoologists Oliver, Alice and Joe capture the panther. Meanwhile, Irena wakes to find Paul missing. Female guesses he went to the mission and urges Irena to enjoy New Orleans on her own. Irena visits the zoo, is drawn to the newly captured leopard and stays after closing hours. She is discovered by Oliver, the zoo's curator, who takes her to dinner and offers her a job in the gift shop. Irena reveals she is a virgin in conversation with Alice, who shares a romantic history (and is still in love) with Oliver and sees her as a rival. One day the leopard tears Joe's arm off during a routine cage cleaning. Joe bleeds to death and Oliver resolves to euthanize the cat, only to find it missing. In its cage lies a puddle of melted flesh like the one found by the motel prostitute. Paul turns up and makes a sexual advance towards Irena. She flees, flags down a police car and has second thoughts about turning Paul in, but a police dog catches a strong scent from the house and a detective is called in. In Paul's basement, police find shackles, bones, and remains of dozens of corpses. They figure Paul is a serial killer who fed corpses to a captive panther, and call in Oliver and Alice to inspect. On the run from Paul, Irena takes refuge in a frustrated romance with Oliver, fearing the consequences of physical intimacy. Paul visits Irena again and explains their shared werecat heritage, thus revealing himself as the escaped murderous leopard. Mating with a human transforms a werecat into a leopard, and only by killing a human can it regain human form. He tells her their parents were siblings because werecats are ancestrally incestuous and only sex between werecats prevents the transformation. He resumes his sexual advances, hoping Irena will accept their predicament, but she does not. Paul then transforms, attacks Oliver and is shot by Alice. Oliver starts an autopsy on the cat. A green gas emanates from the surgical cut and a human arm and hand reach up from within the corpse. Before he can document this, the leopard melts into a pool of green slime. Irena stalks and nearly attacks Alice twice. She later has sex with Oliver and transforms into a leopard but she flees, sparing his life, and is later trapped on a bridge by police. Oliver arrives in time to see her jump off the bridge. Realizing where she is headed, he confronts Irena at a secluded lake house. She has regained human form by killing the house's caretaker. Irena tells Oliver she did not kill him because she loves him, and begs him to kill her. When he refuses, she begs him, then, to make love to her again so she can transform and "be with [her] own kind." Oliver ties Irena naked to the bedposts by her arms and legs to restrain her, and has sex with her. Some time later, Oliver is again in a one-sided relationship with Alice. He stops at the cage holding the "recaptured panther"—Irena, now permanently trapped in her cat form. Oliver reaches through the bars, casually hand-feeds and strokes the now-docile panther's neck. 

=====

Francine Lawrence (Sandra Dee) is about to turn 17 and is on her summer break between her junior and senior years of high school. She resists the pressure to go "manhunting" with her girlfriends and laments the days when the girls had fun together without boys. Francie also rejects her parents wishing to fix her up on a date with the son of a friend of the family, Jeffrey Matthews (James Darren). On a jaunt to the beach with her well developed girlfriends, flat-chested tomboy Francie meets surfer Moondoggie. She quickly becomes infatuated with him, but he shows no romantic interest, however Frances is more attracted to surfing than man hunting. At home, Francie importunes her parents for $25 for a used surfboard. Russ (Arthur O'Connell) and Dorothy Lawrence (Mary LaRoche) grant their daughter's request as an early birthday present and the excited youngster returns to the beach to surf. The gang dubs their female associate "Gidget", a combination of "girl" and "midget". Gidget associates with an all-male surfer gang led by the worldly beach bum, The Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson). Kahuna is a Korean War Air Force veteran twice the age of Frances who is fed up with all the rules he had to live by when he flew combat missions, and dropped out of normal society. He travels the hemisphere surfing with his pet bird. Moondoggie admires Kahuna and wants to emulate him by joining Kahuna in working his way on a freighter to go surfing in Peru at summer's end, instead of going to university as his self-made father plans. Kahuna and Gidget enjoy each other's company, with Gidget questioning how he can survive an aimless and lonely existence without a job. She questions whether if Kahuna knew then what he knew now would he still make the same lifestyle choice after leaving the Air Force. Kahuna later reflects on Gidget's words after the death of his only friend, the pet bird. Hoping to make Moondoggie jealous, Gidget hires one of the other surfers in the gang to be her date to a luau party on the beach. Her plan backfires when the surfer she hired pawns the job off on none other than Moondoggie, unaware that he was the one Gidget wanted to make jealous. Gidget lies and tells Moondoggie that it is Kahuna that she wants to make jealous, and they have a romantic evening at the luau. Eventually Moondoggie says something that upsets Gidget and, as she flees the luau, she runs into Kahuna and agrees to take him to a nearby beach house. Alone with Kahuna, Gidget tries to make Kahuna take her virginity. Amused, Kahuna attempts to call Gidget's bluff by pretending to take her up on her offer but finds himself falling under her spell. Realizing what he was about to do and angry at the situation he's been put in, Kahuna throws her out of the beach house just as Moondoggie arrives. Gidget is mortified and escapes out the back of the beach house as Moondoggie confronts Kahuna. The cops are called to break up the fight between Kahuna and Moondoggie and, after leaving the beach house, they find Gidget stranded with a flat tire and without her driver's license. They take her in to the police station. Gidget's father, having heard about the incident decides to take over control of her social life, and orders her not to see the surfer gang again. Gidget feels devastated at her failure, at which point her mother points out the needlepoint sampler from her grandmother, on her own bedroom wall. She rereads it: "To Be A Real Woman / Is To Bring Out The / Best In A Man". In the end, her father arranges a date for Gidget with Jeffrey Matthews that Frances grudgingly accepts. To her surprise, Matthews turns out to be Moondoggie. The two return to the beach to find Kahuna tearing down his beach shack and find out that he's taken a job as an airline pilot. Moondoggie and Gidget realize how they feel about each other and, as an act of romantic devotion, Moondoggie asks Gidget to wear his class pin. Kahuna cheerfully warns Moondoggie that Gidget is quite a woman. 

=====

The story revolves around the eventual discovery of the American continents by the Yilanè, who are searching for new resources and territories for colonization. Being reptiloid and cold-blooded, they target tropical and sub-tropical zones. Eventually, of course, they encounter the humanoids, whom they regard as barely sentient animals. Humans, in their turn, are xenophobically terrified of the Yilanè. As the winters become colder the Tanu are forced to travel south into warmer climates to hunt, onto Yilanè territory. It is not long before a state of conflict exists between the two species. The central characters are Vaintè, an ambitious Yilanè; Stallan, her vicious and obedient adjutant; and Kerrick, a "ustuzou" (the Yilanè word for mammal) who is captured by the reptiloids as a boy, and raised as a Yilanè. Kerrick eventually escapes to rejoin his own people, ultimately becoming a leader. Another notable Yilanè character is Enge, the leader of a faction of pacifist Yilanè who reject the militaristic and violent attitudes of their culture. This group is violently opposed by most other Yilanè, especially Vaintè. Enge befriends Kerrick, and acts as his teacher, while he lives with the Yilanè. After Kerrick escapes he joins other human tribes and after a journey over the mountains, being pursued all the while by Vaintè, who wants nothing more than the absolute destruction of the ustuzou. After a number of victories, Kerrick realizes that despite the losses inflicted upon the Yilanè, the Yilanè will never stop pursuing them. Kerrick organizes an expedition back to the Yilanè city of Alpèasak where he was held as a boy, and burns it down. The North American continent is freed of the Yilanè. 

=====

The new, state of the art nuclear submarine, Seaview, is on diving trials in the Arctic Ocean. Seaview is designed and built by scientist and engineering genius Admiral Harriman Nelson (USN-Ret) (Walter Pidgeon). Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling) is the submarine's Commanding Officer. One of the on-board observers is Dr. Susan Hiller (Joan Fontaine), studying crew-related stress. The mission includes being out of radio contact for 96 hours while under the Arctic ice cap, but the ice begins to crack and melt, with boulder- size pieces crashing into the ocean around the submerged submarine; surfacing, they find the sky is on fire. After rescuing scientist Miguel Alvarez (Michael Ansara) and his dog at Ice Floe Delta, Seaview receives radio contact from Mission Director Inspector Bergan at the Bureau of Marine Exploration. He says that a meteor shower has pierced the Van Allen radiation belt, causing it to catch on fire, resulting in a world-threatening increase in heat all across the Earth. Nelson's on-board friend and scientist, retired Commodore Lucius Emery (Peter Lorre), concurs, saying that it is certainly possible. Bergan also tells Nelson that the President wants him at a UN Emergency Scientific Meeting as soon as possible. Nelson and Commodore Emery devise a plan to end the catastrophe, and Seaview arrives in New York Harbor two days later. At the meeting, Nelson informs the UN that according to their calculations, if the heat increase is not stopped, it will become irreversible and that Earth has "a life expectancy of about three weeks". The Admiral and the Commander have come up with a plan to extinguish the fire. He proposes firing a nuclear missile at the burning belt from the best calculated location, in the Mariana Islands. Nelson posits that when fired from the right location and time, 1600 hours on 29 August, a nuclear explosion should overwhelm and extinguish the flames, away into space, "amputating" the belt from the Earth. Seaview, he advises, has the capability of firing the missile. The Admiral's plan, however, is rejected by the chief scientist and head delegate, Vienna's Emilio Zucco (Henry Daniell). His reasons are that he knows the composition of gases in the belt and believes the sky fire will burn itself out at 173 degrees. Zucco's plan is to let the fire do just that; he feels the Admiral's plan is too risky. However, Nelson claims that Zucco's burn-out point is beyond that date and time, if the current temperature rise rate continues. At Zucco's urging, Nelson and Emery are shouted down and the plan is rejected. Despite their rejection, the Admiral and the Commodore quickly leave the proceedings; the only authorization they need will come directly from the President himself. It is a race against the clock as Seaview speeds to reach the proper firing position, above the Pacific's Marianas trench. During this time, Nelson and Crane agree on tapping the Rio-to-London telephone cable in order to try to reach the President. However, an unsuccessful attempt on the Admiral's life makes it clear that there is a saboteur aboard. The confusion over who the saboteur might be revolves around both rescued scientist Miguel Alvarez, who has become a religious zealot regarding the catastrophe, and Dr. Hiller, who secretly admires Dr Zucco's plan. Other obstacles present themselves: a minefield and the crew's near-mutiny. Even Crane begins to doubt the Admiral's tactics and reasoning. During the cable tapping attempt, Crane and Alvarez battle a giant squid. Although the London cable connection is made, Nelson is told that there has been no contact with the U.S. for 35 hours. A hostile, unidentified submarine pursues them, diving deep into the Mariana Trench, exceeding its crush depth; the sub implodes before it can destroy Seaview. The saboteur is revealed to be Dr. Hiller: Captain Crane happens by as she exits the ship's "Off Limits" Nuclear Reactor core, looking rather ill. Her detector badge has turned red, indicating that she has been exposed to a fatal dose of radiation. While struggling with the Captain above the submarine's populated shark tank, she falls in and is killed by the sharks. The Admiral learns that temperatures are rising faster than expected, confirming that Zucco's belief that the sky fire will burn itself out is in error. Seaview reaches the Mariana Islands, and over Alvarez's threats and objections, a nuclear missile is launched toward the belt. It explodes, driving the burning flames away from the Earth and saving humanity. 

=====

Ella Peterson works as a switchboard operator at the Susanswerphone answering service. She can't help breaking the rules by becoming overly involved in the lives of the subscribers. Some of the more peculiar ones include a dentist who composes songs on an air hose, an actor who emulates Marlon Brando, and a little boy for whom she pretends to be Santa Claus. Ella has a secret crush on the voice of subscriber Jeffrey Moss, a playwright for whom she plays a comforting "Mom" character. She finally meets him face to face, when she brings him a message under a false name (Melisande Scott) and romantic sparks and some confusion begin. A humorous subplot involves the courtly Otto, who convinces Susanswerphone to take orders for his "mail-order classical record business", known as Titanic Records. Unfortunately, Otto is actually a bookie whose orders are a system for betting on horses. Unwittingly, Ella changes orders for the supposedly incorrect Beethoven's Tenth Symphony, Opus 6, not realizing she is changing "bets". Although the police begin to assume that Susanswerphone might be a front for an escort service, the plot ends happily, with Jeff proposing, and her wacky subscribers coming to thank her. 

=====

Jan Jedermann (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer) is an ingenious fashion designer, but also an unscrupulous showman. He dies in a car accident and ruminates during his last hours about how one more night in his life could have gone by. He just cannot accept that Death comes to get him on the evening of his greatest triumph, a fashion show set on the roof of the Vienna Opera. He makes a pact with Death, allowing him to remain among the living at least until the morning. 

=====

After a brief framing scene among characters from The Rebel Angels, the novel turns to a conversation between the Recording Angel and the daimon in charge of Cornish's life. The main part of the book is that life as narrated by the Recording Angel, interspersed with comments in which the daimon explains how he worked to make Cornish a great man. We follow Cornish's life from his two Canadian grandparents – part of "what's bred in the bone" – through his childhood as a wealthy and precocious misfit in a small Ontario town, his education in Toronto and Oxford, his unusual apprenticeship as a restorer and painter in Nazi Germany, his wartime experiences in England, his postwar work with a group resembling the Monuments Men, and his collecting and patronage of the arts in Toronto. A repeated theme in his mature years is art forgery. Cornish's daimon believes that people develop through adversity and provides Cornish with plenty, most obviously at the hands of his childhood classmates and his artistic master in Germany, but also in two love affairs and in a friendship with a young man who in some ways is Cornish's apprentice. Another form of adversity is Cornish's situation as a talented artist whose interests and skills are out of fashion. First published by Macmillan of Canada in 1985, What's Bred in the Bone was on the short list for the 1986 Booker Prize. What's Bred in the Bone is the second novel of the Cornish Trilogy. It was followed by The Lyre of Orpheus. It is also connected to earlier novels; when Cornish is at school in Toronto, one of his teachers is Dunstan Ramsay from the Deptford Trilogy. There are many parallels to be found in W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. 

=====

In June 1944, as the Allies are fighting the Germans in Normandy, Lucien Lacombe, a 17-year-old country boy, tries to join the Resistance. The local Resistance leader, the village school teacher, turns him down on grounds of age. Lucien travels back to the town where he works by bicycle and stumbles on the hotel that is the headquarters of the Carlingue, the French auxiliaries of the Gestapo, and is taken into custody. Under the influence of alcohol, he betrays the teacher, who is brought in and tortured. Seeing that Lucien could be useful, the Carlingue recruit him into their lawless regime of extortion and terror. He enjoys his new power and position, but falls in love with France Horn, a beautiful French-born Jewish girl living in seclusion with her father Albert, a tailor, and her paternal grandmother Bella, who left Paris in fear and are trying to cross the border into the safety of Spain. Their sophistication stands in contrast to Lucien's uncouth and lack of education. Forcing himself into a relationship with the girl, Lucien comes to be protective of the very people targeted by his superiors. He is warned that the Allies are winning and that as a collaborator he will be killed. Albert goes to Carlingue headquarters to see Lucien to discuss his relationship with his daughter man-to-man but is taken into custody by the head of the Carlingue and turned over to the Germans. After members of the Resistance attack the hotel, the inhabitants of the town are rounded up in retribution. Lucien and a German soldier arrest France and Bella but Lucien decides to kill the soldier. He takes the women by car toward Spain but the vehicle breaks down and they go on by foot until they find shelter in a secluded and abandoned farmhouse. A text epilogue states that Lucien Lacombe was arrested on October 12, 1944, tried and condemned to death by a military tribunal of the Resistance, and executed. 

=====

In the 1980s, Zane is living a pathetic life without money or employment. When a magic gem merchant cheats Zane out of an opportunity for romance, Zane decides to take his own life. As he starts to pull the trigger, he sees the spectre of Death (Thanatos) advancing on him. Startled, he pulls the gun from his own head and shoots Death right between the eyes. He is then visited by a woman who introduces herself as Fate, who insists that Zane must now assume the position of the man he has killed, since whoever kills Death must become the new Death. As Zane makes his way downstairs, he gets his first view of a pale limousine with the license plate reading "Mortis"...his Death Steed (Death rides a pale horse) who can assume the form of a pale boat, a plane, or a pale limousine, as well as the form of a pale horse. Fate then departs and leaves Zane in the care of Chronos, the Incarnation of Time, who then instructs Zane how to use his deathwatch, how Mortis changes form, how to use other instruments of the office, and exactly what his new duties are. This entails residing in Purgatory and visiting Earth to collect the souls of humans who are in a close balance of good and evil and cannot determine their eternal destination (Heaven or Hell) without help. In the course of learning the job, he discovers that his coming into the office of Death was not accidental, but was manipulated by a powerful magician (Cedric Kaftan Jr.). Despite being a mortal, this magician has strong ties to the other Incarnations from Purgatory and reveals to Zane that the Incarnation of Fate arranged Zane's destiny for the magician's purpose. There is a prophecy which states that Luna Kaftan, the magician's daughter, is destined to go into politics and thwart the schemes of Satan, the Incarnation of Evil. Luna Kaftan is thus a target for the forces of Hell and is in need of supernatural protection. The magician, who has done a great deal of research, feels that Zane is the best candidate for the Incarnation of Death to fall in love with Luna and thus want to protect her. The only way for the magician Kaftan to meet with Death without Satan's knowledge is to die with his soul in balance. The magician chooses to sacrifice his own life to introduce Zane to Luna and explain to Zane the circumstances which brought him into the office of Death. The dead magician's plans however seem to go awry. Due to manipulation by Satan, Luna is also destined to die before she can fulfill the prophecy. The magician had used too much black magic for his soul to be in balance. To bring it into balance before committing suicide, he has transferred the excess evil on his soul to Luna's soul, whom he has assumed to be innocent of evil. However, Luna has a burden of evil on her soul already, and her father's scheme has put her on the course to Hell. To correct this, she volunteers to switch places with one of Death's other clients. By sacrificing her own life to save another, she manages to balance the evil on her soul. Her actions play right into Satan's trap, who doesn't care whether she goes to Heaven or Hell, only that she dies and is no longer a threat to his plots. However, Zane has already fallen in love with Luna by this time, just like the magician had planned, and he refuses to take the soul of the woman he loves. Now the motives behind the magician's choice of Zane are made clear to him when the other four Incarnations (Time, Fate, War, and Nature) from Purgatory approach him and explain that they were all in on the plan. The previous Death could not be manipulated into betraying the duties of his office for love, so the Incarnations of Immortality decided to replace him with a young, stubborn man like Zane, who could. Because Luna's soul is next in the queue, Zane cannot take the souls of other mortals until he deals with hers. He refuses to do so, thereby going on strike and leaving dying mortals in agony, unable to be released by death. As this is not to Satan's advantage, he first tries to bribe Zane, then intimidate him into going back to work. Zane, however, has had a conversation with Gaea, the Incarnation of Nature, who has demonstrated to him the absolute power each Incarnation wields in its own sphere of influence. Zane eventually realises that the office of Death is unassailable by Satan and that he cannot be harmed within the sphere of that office. As an Incarnation, Satan himself has a soul and is subject to Zane's dominion. The conflict ends in a draw and Satan has no choice but to admit defeat. With Satan's plot exposed, Purgatory changes Luna's destiny and she is free to return to life. Zane lifts his strike, and with Luna under his protection, Satan can no longer interfere with her fate through the means of death. 

=====

After his regeneration, the Sixth Doctor starts behaving erratically. He goes to the wardrobe looking for a new outfit and finds a glaring, mismatched, brightly coloured coat to which he immediately takes a shine. Peri tells him that he could not go outside wearing such an awful garb, to which the Doctor takes offence. Two twins, Romulus and Remus Sylveste, receive a visitation from a mysterious old man called Professor Edgeworth. They question how he managed to get inside their house; he tells them he will return when their father is there, then abducts them. They arrive on a spacecraft in deep space. Edgeworth then communicates with his superior, a slug-like creature called Mestor, who instructs Edgeworth to take the twins to Titan 3. In the console room, the Doctor has a funny turn, quoting a poem about a Peri — a good and beautiful fairy in Persian mythology, but one which used to be evil. The Doctor accuses her of being evil, and of being an alien spy before rushing toward her and throttling her. He catches a sight of his own manic face in a mirror and collapses in a heap, releasing Peri. When she tells him that he tried to kill her, he initially denies he could be capable of such an act, but seeing how terrified of him she is, decides he must become a hermit on the desolate asteroid Titan 3. The twins' father contacts the authorities; he found Zanium in their room — a sure sign of intergalactic kidnap. A Commander Lang begins the pursuit and soon finds a suspicious ship previously reported missing. He tries to contact it, but it enters warp drive — something that class of ship is not designed to do. On Titan 3 the Doctor and Peri hear the crash landing of a craft. Examining its wreckage, they find the concussed body of Commander Lang. They take him back to the TARDIS where he reveals his whole squadron has been destroyed. Believing the Doctor to be responsible, he points his gun at the Doctor and threatens to kill him. Peri pleads with Lang, telling him that the Doctor had in fact saved him, but he faints away. The Doctor is not keen to treat Lang, more concerned for his own life, but eventually agrees to Peri's persuasion. Edgeworth argues with Romulus and Remus, making them do Mestor's work. He scolds them for setting up a distress signal, so they are not allowed to use electronic equipment to solve the equations they have been set. An image of Mestor appears and gives the twins a more blunt threat — work for him or have their minds destroyed. On the TARDIS scanner, the Doctor and Peri see a building — something which has no place on an uninhabited asteroid. Leaving Lang behind, they find a tunnel which may lead to the building, but on exploring find two aliens wielding guns. The Doctor cowers in fear and pleads with them to kill Peri instead of him. They are led off and are brought before Edgeworth. The Doctor claims to be a pilgrim to Titan 3, but Noma, one of the aliens, says they are spies and should be shot. The Doctor suddenly recognises Edgeworth as an old friend – Azmael, master of Jaconda, whom he last saw two incarnations ago. When the Doctor sees Romulus and Remus and discovers it is Azmael who has abducted them, he is disgusted. Azmael teleports away with the twins and the aliens, leaving the Doctor and Peri locked in the building. The Doctor starts to break the lock's combination, but Peri discovers Noma has set the base to self-destruct. The Doctor improvises a solution to teleport them back to the TARDIS. Peri makes a successful return, but weeps when the Doctor has not appeared when she sees the base explode on the scanner. A glimpse of the Doctor is seen appearing in the TARDIS; he was delayed returning because he was using Peri's watch to synchronise their arrival, but the watch had stopped. The Doctor is surprised at Peri's compassion when she thought he had died. On Jaconda, Mestor is seen putting one of the bird-like Jacondans to death for a petty offence. The TARDIS arrives, but instead of the expected beautiful planet the Doctor is expecting, he, Peri and Lang find a desolate wasteland covered with giant Gastropod trails. The Doctor is reluctant to go to the palace, scared for his own life, but is persuaded to take Lang there. In the palace corridors they see murals depicting Jaconda's history, depicting the slugs of myth – but it appears that they are now all too real. After avoiding Gastropods, Lang gets stuck in their slime trail. Azmael takes the twins to his laboratory and shows them a storeroom full of Gastropod eggs. Mestor arrives and tries to persuade them that his aims are benevolent. Azmael begs him to stop reading his thoughts and stop Noma watching his every move. He agrees and leaves. Azmael explains to the Twins that Mestor usurped him as leader of Jaconda and outlines a plan to draw two outlying planets into the same orbit as Jaconda. The Twins' genius is required to stabilise those planets in their new orbit. The Doctor, leaving Peri and Lang behind, finds Azmael's lab. In a manic fit of pique, he attacks Azmael, but is restrained by a Jacondan and the Twins. The Doctor apologises to Azmael but demands to know what is going on. Meanwhile, Peri is captured by Jacondan guards and brought before Mestor. When Lang escapes to Azmael's lab and informs them what has happened, the Doctor finally shows compassion for her when he thinks she might die. Mestor refrains from killing Peri immediately, finding her appearance pleasing. Jacondan guards arrive in Azmael's lab and seize the Doctor. The Doctor tells Mestor that he ought to allow him to assist with the dangerous operation of moving the planets, as a single mistake could blow a hole in that corner of the universe. Back the laboratory, Azmael informs the Doctor of the details of the plan to bring the planets into the same orbit — they will be placed in different time zones using time travel technology that Mestor stole from Azmael. The Doctor realises that, as the other planets are smaller than Jaconda, bringing them closer to Jaconda's sun will lead to catastrophe. The Doctor enters the egg storeroom and is disturbed that they have no nutritional mucus. He tries to cut one open with a laser cutter; the shell is impenetrable, but the egg reacts slightly to the heat. The Doctor realises they have been designed to withstand the heat of an exploding sun — the explosion of the Jacondan sun will scatter the eggs throughout the universe. When they hatch, the Gastropods will conquer the universe. The one remaining Jacondan, Drak in the lab collapses dead, his mind burnt out. Mestor had been using him as a monitor and knows the full details of what has been discussed. Peri, Lang and the Twins return to the TARDIS, whilst the Doctor and Azmael go to confront Mestor. When Mestor refuses to abandon his plans, the Doctor hurls a vial of acid taken from the lab at him, but a force field protects Mestor. Mestor threatens to possess the Doctor's mind and body and demonstrates by taking control of Azmael's body. Azmael tells him to destroy Mestor's body before he can return to it, which he does with a further vial. Then Azmael, in his last regeneration, forces himself to regenerate — killing himself — and in doing so destroys Mestor. Dying, Azmael says he has no regrets and that one of his fondest memories was a time spent with the Doctor by a fountain. The Doctor weeps over his body. The Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS; Lang decides to stay behind on Jaconda to assist with their rebuilding. When Peri tells the Doctor off for being rude, he reminds her that he is an alien, with different "values and customs", and that: "No matter what else happens, I am the Doctor... whether you like it or not!" 

=====

Anna Karenina (; ) leaves her cold husband for the dashing Count Vronsky in 19th-century Russia. An unfortunate series of events leaves her hopelessly depressed. 

=====

Before the destruction of Krypton, the criminals General Zod, Ursa and Non are sentenced to banishment into the Phantom Zone. Years later, the Phantom Zone is shattered near Earth by the shockwave of a hydrogen bomb, thrown from Earth by Superman. The three criminals are freed and find themselves with superpowers granted by the yellow light of the Sun. After landing on the moon and effortlessly killing a team of astronauts exploring there, they continue on to the Earth with plans to conquer the planet. The Daily Planet sends journalist Clark Kent—whose secret identity is Superman—and his colleague Lois Lane to Niagara Falls. Lois suspects Clark and Superman are the same person after Clark is absent when Superman appears and saves a falling kid. Lois tries to trick Clark into revealing he is Superman by throwing herself into the falls, but Clark manages to save her without turning into Superman. That night, when Clark trips over a rug so that his hand lands in a lit fireplace, Lois discovers that his hand is unburned, forcing Clark to admit he is Superman. He takes her to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, and shows her the traces of his past stored in energy crystals. Superman declares his love for Lois and his wish to spend his life with her. After conferring with the artificial intelligence of his mother Lara, Superman removes his superpowers by exposing himself to red Kryptonian sunlight in a crystal chamber, becoming a mortal. Clark and Lois spend the night together, then leave the Fortress and return from the Arctic by automobile. Arriving at a diner, Clark is assaulted by a truck driver named Rocky. Meanwhile, Zod and his cohorts, after becoming accustomed to Earth, travel to the White House and force the President of the United States to surrender on behalf of the entire planet during an international television broadcast. When the President pleads for Superman to save the Earth, General Zod demands that Superman come and "kneel before Zod!" Clark and Lois learn of Zod's conquest and, realizing that humanity alone cannot fight Zod, Clark decides to return to the Fortress and try to regain his powers. Lex Luthor escapes from prison with Eve Teschmacher's help, leaving his accomplice Otis behind. Luthor and Teschmacher infiltrate the Fortress of Solitude before Superman and Lois arrive. Luthor learns of Superman's connection to Jor-El and General Zod. He finds Zod at the White House and tells him Superman is the son of Jor-El, their jailer, and offers to lead him to Superman in exchange for control of Australia. The three Kryptonians ally with Luthor and go to the offices of the Daily Planet. Superman arrives, after having found the green crystal that restores his powers, and battles the three. Zod realizes Superman cares for the humans and takes advantage of this by threatening bystanders. Superman realizes the only way to stop Zod and the others is to lure them to the Fortress. Superman flies off, with Zod, Ursa, and Non in pursuit, kidnapping Lois and taking along Luthor. Upon arrival, Zod declares Luthor has outlived his usefulness and plans to kill both him and Superman. Superman tries to get Luthor to lure the three into the crystal chamber to depower them, but Luthor, eager to get back in Zod's favor, reveals the chamber's secret to the villains. Zod forces Superman into the chamber and activates it; however, Superman crushes Zod's hand and tosses him into a crevice. Luthor deduces that Superman reconfigured the chamber to expose the trio to red sunlight while Superman was protected from it. Non falls into another crevice when trying to fly over it and Lois knocks Ursa into a third. Superman flies back to civilization, returning Luthor to prison and Lois home. At the Daily Planet the following day, Clark finds Lois upset about knowing his secret and not being able to be open about her true feelings. He kisses her, using his abilities to wipe her mind of her knowledge of the past few days. Later, Clark returns to the diner, gets revenge on Rocky and humiliates him. Superman restores the damage done by Zod, replacing the flag atop the White House and tells the president he will not abandon his duty again. 

=====

On March 9, 1977, Francine Hughes, following thirteen years of physical domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, James Berlin "Mickey" Hughes, tells their children to put their coats on and wait for her in their car. She then pours gasoline around the bed in which Mickey is sleeping in their home in Dansville, Michigan, and sets the bed afire. After the house catches fire, Hughes drives with her children to the local police station in order to confess to the act. Hughes is tried for first degree murder, and is found by a jury of her peers to be not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. It is widely believed that the judge and the jury largely sympathized with Francine's plight and felt that Mickey's murder was a justifiable action. 

=====

Office worker Shoji Sugiyama (Ryō Ikebe) wakes and goes about his morning routine, attended by his wife, Masako (Chikage Awashima), before commuting to his job in the Tokyo office of a fire brick manufacturing company. During a hiking trip with office friends, Shoji spends time alone with a fellow worker, a typist nicknamed "Goldfish" for her large eyes (Keiko Kishi). After the trip Goldfish makes advances to Shoji and the two begin an affair. Masako suspects something is amiss but is reluctant to confront her husband. After Shoji fails to mark the anniversary of their son's death, he and Masako become progressively estranged. Their friends, too, suspect something is transpiring between Shoji and Goldfish. They confront Goldfish, advising her not to come between a married couple. Aggrieved, Goldfish visits Shoji late in the night. Masako, convinced that her suspicions have foundation, demands that Shoji tell her the truth about his relationship with Goldfish. Shoji still lies about it, and the next morning Masako leaves the marital home to stay with her mother. Shoji relocates to his company's office in the provincial town of Mitsuishi (now part of Bizen). Masako eventually travels to Mitsuishi and the couple is reunited. They promise to forget their past troubles and strive for marital happiness. 

=====

Immortus sends his servant Tempus to kill an apparently critically ill Rick Jones, the possessor of the "Destiny Force", a powerful ability used during the Kree–Skrull War storyline.Avengers #88–97 (June 1971 – March 1972) Rick is saved by Kang the Conqueror (who is destined to evolve into Immortus), who destroys Tempus and holds off Immortus' temporal army. The alien Kree Supreme Intelligence urges Rick to use the Destiny Force to summon aid. With the help of former Zodiac member Libra, Rick pulls various members of the superhero team Avengers from the past, present, and future. The team consists of a disillusioned Captain America, who is pulled from an adventure in which he discovers a high-ranking government official is the leader of the Secret Empire;Captain America #176 (August 1974) Yellowjacket from a time when he is mentally unbalanced and unaware that he is Henry Pym;Avengers #59 (December 1968) Hawkeye from just after the conclusion of the Kree–Skrull War and war against Olympus;Avengers #88–100 (May 1971 – June 1972) Giant-Man (also Henry Pym) and the Wasp from the present;Avengers #4 (vol. 3, May 1997) Songbird from an unspecified time in the near future; and Captain Marvel from further in the future. Although these Avengers appear almost randomly selected, Libra states that they have been chosen due to his subtle awareness of the universal balance, each one fulfilling an eventually clarified role in events: *Cap's presence brought cohesion to the team while his weakened mental state due to his current lack of confidence prevented him from dominating it; *The Wasp led the team with strength and flexibility that gave them direction without exerting too much control; *Yellowjacket's eventual betrayal of the team due to his current instability would bring them into the right position to strike; *Giant-Man provided support while irritating and provoking Yellowjacket; *Hawkeye's presence affected both Yellowjacket's and Libra's responses to the crisis; *Songbird's skewed connections to Hawkeye, the Wasp, and Captain Marvel in the past, present, and future affected Captain Marvel's own decisions regarding Rick Jones's fate. During their efforts to protect Rick, the Avengers battle Immortus across several different eras, including encounters in the American Old West with the Two-Gun Kid, the Night Rider, the Ringo Kid, the Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, and the Gunhawks, as well as an alternate version of the Avengers from the 1950s, and a confrontation to thwart an alien invasion in a possible future. During their searches, they discover that Immortus possesses the Forever Crystal, an artifact that can control multiple realities. Kang aids the Avengers as part of his 'rebellion' against his apparent destiny, and reveals that Immortus serves a trio of entities called the Time Keepers, with his previous interactions with the team having been motivated by an effort to keep humanity limited to prevent them from developing into a threat to the universe. These entities eventually reveal that, in various futures, mankind will travel into space and establish the warlike Terran Empire, an interstellar dictatorship policed by the Galactic Avengers Battalion and ruled by humans with access to the Destiny Force, which will thrive at the cost of many alien cultures. A future version of the Avengers will apparently be at the forefront of the expansion, but the Avengers reject the idea that mankind must be destroyed or contained to prevent these futures' happening, with Captain America and Songbird arguing that humanity deserves a chance to show that it can be better rather than being condemned for things that have not happened yet. Kang aids the Avengers and, in the final battle, kills the Time Keepers when they attempt to punish Immortus for failing. The Avengers resolve to strike against the Time Keepers even after they learn their enemies' motives, arguing that the Time Keepers only seek to eliminate those that might threaten them, when they do not even attempt to erase themselves, despite the existence of alternate timelines where they themselves became the Time Twisters. During a mass conflict where the Time-Keepers unleash the Avengers of the corrupted timelines against an army of Avengers drawn from the worlds where they remained true to their original purpose, the Time Keepers attempt to force Kang to become Immortus after they kill the future Immortus for his attempt to protect the Avengers. However, Kang's strength of will and the unique temporal conditions of the conflict results in a temporal backlash, culminating in Kang and Immortus being recreated as separate beings. When Rick is injured using the Destiny Force to destroy the Time-Keepers' equipment, Captain Marvel merges with Rick to save his life—the link with Marvel's future self resulting in Rick being unintentionally linked to Marvel's present self when he, Giant- Man, and the Wasp return to their present—and all the Avengers are returned to their respective time lines with a lingering memory of the incident.Avengers Forever #1 – 12 (December 98 – November 99) 

=====

The film takes place during a hot summer in 1958 at a seaside town on the Inland Sea. A travelling theatre troupe arrives by ship, headed by the troupe's lead actor and owner, Komajuro (Ganjirō Nakamura). The rest of the troupe goes around the town to publicise their appearance. Komajuro visits his former mistress, Oyoshi, who runs a small eatery in the town. They have a grown-up son, Kiyoshi, who works at the post office as a mail clerk and is saving up to study at the university. However, he does not know who Komajuro is, having been told he is his uncle. Komajuro invites Kiyoshi to go fishing by the sea. When Sumiko, the lead actress of the troupe and Komajuro's present girlfriend, learns that Komajuro is visiting his former mistress, she becomes jealous and makes a visit to Oyoshi's eatery, where Kiyoshi and Komajuro are playing a game of go. Komajuro brusquely chases her away before she can say anything too calamitous, then confronts her in the pouring rain. He tells her to back off from his son, and decides to break up with her. Sumiko calls Komajuro an ingrate, and reminds him of the times she has helped him out in the past. Backstage one day, Sumiko offers Kayo, a pretty young actress from the same troupe, some money and asks her to seduce Kiyoshi. Although Kayo is at first reluctant, she gives in after Sumiko's insistence, without being told why. She goes to Kiyoshi's post office to make him fall for her. However, after knowing Kiyoshi for some time, she falls for him and decides to tell Kiyoshi the truth about how their relationship started. Kiyoshi is undaunted and says it does not matter to him, and eventually their relationship is discovered by Komajuro. Komajuro confronts Kayo, who tells him of Sumiko's setup, but only after asserting she now loves Kiyoshi and is not doing it for money. Komajuro has a violent confrontation with Sumiko and tells her he does not want to see her again. She pleads for reconciliation, but he is indignant. Amid Komajuro's personal dramas, the troupe's old-fashioned kabuki-style performances fail to attract the town's residents. The other actors pursue their own romantic diversions at local businesses, including a brothel and a barber shop. As audiences decline, problems pile up: the manager of the troupe abandons them, and a principal supporting player absconds with the remaining funds. Komajuro has no choice but to disband the troupe, and they meet for a melancholy last night together. Komajuro then goes to Oyoshi's place and tells her of his troupe's break-up. Oyoshi persuades him to tell Kiyoshi the truth about his parenthood and then stay together with them at her place as a family. After some discussion, Komajuro agrees. When Kiyoshi later comes back with Kayo, Komajuro becomes so enraged to see them together that he beats both of them repeatedly, leading to a physical tussle between Kiyoshi and him, ending with Kiyoshi pushing him towards a table. To stifle the brawl, Oyoshi reveals to him the truth about Komajuro. Kiyoshi first responds that he had suspected it all along, but then refuses to accept Komajuro as his father, saying he has coped well without one so far, and goes to his room upstairs. Taking in Kiyoshi's reaction, Komajuro decides to leave after all. Kayo wants to join Komajuro to help him achieve success for the family, but a chastened Komajuro asks her to stay to help make Kiyoshi a fine man, as was always Komajuro's hope. Kiyoshi later has a change of heart and goes downstairs to look for Komajuro, but his father has already left, and Oyoshi tells Kiyoshi to let him go. At the train station in town, Komajuro tries to light a cigarette but has no matches. Sumiko, who is sitting nearby, comes up and offers him a light. Sumiko asks where Komajuro is going, and asks to accompany him, since she now has no place to go. The two reconcile and Sumiko decides to join Komajuro to start anew under another impresario at Kuwana. The last scene of the film shows Komajuro, tended by Sumiko, in a train heading for Kuwana. 

=====

The film takes place in suburban Tokyo, and begins with a group of boy students going home. The film steers into a subplot concerning the local women's club monthly dues. Everyone in the neighborhood club believes that Mrs Hayashi, the treasurer, has given the dues to the chairwoman, Mrs Haraguchi (Haruko Sugimura), but Mrs Haraguchi denies it. They gossip amongst themselves who could have taken the money, and speculate that Mrs Haraguchi could have used the money to buy for herself a new washing machine. Later Mrs Haraguchi confronts Mrs Hayashi for starting the rumor and ruining her reputation, but Mrs Hayashi states that she has indeed handed the dues money to Haraguchi's mother. Only later does Mrs Haraguchi realize it was her mistake (her mother being quite senile and forgetful), and she goes to apologize. The boys are all attracted to a neighbor's house because they have a television set, where they can watch their favorite sumo wrestling matches. (At the time of the film's release in Japan, the medium was rapidly gaining popularity.) However, their conservative parents forbid them to visit their bohemian neighbors because the wife is thought to be a cabaret singer. As a result of this, the young boys of the Hayashi family, Minoru and Isamu, pressure their mother to buy them a television set, but their mother refuses. When their father (Chishū Ryū) comes to know about it, he asks the boys to keep quiet when they kick a tantrum. Minoru throws an anger fit, and states that adults always engage in pointless niceties like "good morning" and refuse to say exactly what they mean. Back in their room, Minoru and Isamu decide on a silence strike against all adults. The first neighbor to bear the brunt of this snub is Mrs Haraguchi. Mrs Haraguchi, angered by this snub, speculates it is Mrs Hayashi who instigates this in revenge over their earlier misunderstanding, and tells this to busybody Mrs. Tomizawa (Teruko Nagaoka). Soon, everybody thinks Mrs Hayashi is a petty, vengeful person, and are all queueing up to return their loaned items to her. Minoru and Isamu continue their strike in school, and even against their English tutor. Finally, their schoolteacher visits to find the root of their silence. The two boys run off from home with a pot of rice due to hunger, but are caught by a passing policeman. They disappear for hours into the evening, until their English tutor finds them outside a station watching television. At the end of the film, the boys find out their parents have indeed purchased a television set to support a neighbour in his new job as a salesman. Jubilant, they stop their strike at once. Their English tutor and their aunt appear to be starting a fresh romance. 

=====

While Superman is saving lives and protecting the citizens of Metropolis, Gus Gorman, a chronically unemployed ne'er-do-well, discovers he has a talent for computer programming and is hired at the Metropolis-based conglomerate Webscoe. Gus embezzles from his employer through salami slicing, bringing him to the attention of CEO Ross Webster. Webster is intrigued by Gus's potential to help him rule the world financially. Joined by sister Vera and "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia, Ross blackmails Gus into helping him. At the Daily Planet, Clark Kent convinces his boss, Perry White, to let him and photographer Jimmy Olsen return to Smallville for his high school reunion, at the same time that his fellow reporter Lois Lane leaves for a vacation in Bermuda. En route, as Superman, Kent extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant containing unstable beltric acid, which produces corrosive vapor when superheated. He also saves Jimmy, who breaks his leg trying to get pictures of the inferno. At the reunion, Clark is reunited with childhood friend Lana Lang, a divorcée with a young son named Ricky, and harassed by Brad Wilson, his former bully and her ex-boyfriend. Clark spends a few days in Smallville and gets closer with Lana and during a picnic, Superman saves Ricky from being killed by a combine harvester. Infuriated by Colombia's refusal to do business with him, Ross orders Gus to command Vulcan, an American weather satellite, to create a tornado to destroy Colombia's coffee crop for the next several years, allowing Webster to corner the market. Gus travels to Smallville to use the offices of WheatKing, a subsidiary of Webscoe, to reprogram the satellite. Although Vulcan creates a devastating storm, Ross's scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes it, saving the harvest. Ross orders Gus to use his computer knowledge to create Kryptonite, remembering an interview with Superman. Gus uses Vulcan to locate, scan and analyze Krypton's debris. He discovers that one of the elements of Kryptonite is "unknown" and substitutes tar after glancing at his pack of cigarettes. Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky's birthday party, but Smallville turns it into a town celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as Army officers, give Superman the flawed Kryptonite, which has no immediate effect. But Superman soon becomes selfish; his desire for Lana causes him to delay rescuing a truck driver from a jackknifed rig hanging from a bridge. Superman becomes pessimistic and regresses into committing petty acts of vandalism such as straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa and blowing out the Olympic Flame. Gus, feeling used, gives Ross crude plans for a supercomputer and Ross agrees to build it in return for Gus creating an oil embargo by directing all oil tankers to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean until further notice. When the captain of one tanker insists on maintaining his original course, Lorelei seduces Superman, persuading him to waylay the tanker and breach the hull, causing a massive oil spill. The villains decamp to the computer's location in the Grand Canyon. Superman goes on a drinking binge, is overcome by guilt, and suffers a nervous breakdown. In a junkyard, Superman splits into two personae: the immoral, corrupted dark Superman and the moral compass, meek and mild-mannered Clark Kent. They engage in a battle, ending with Clark victorious over his dark reflection of himself. Restored to his true self, Clark transforms into Superman and repairs the damage his evil counterpart caused. After defending himself from rockets and an MX missile, Superman confronts Ross, Vera and Lorelei. Gus's "Ultimate Computer" identifies him as a threat and attempts to determine his weakness, eventually unleashing a beam of pure Kryptonite. Guilt-ridden and horrified by the prospect of "going down in history as the man who killed Superman", Gus destroys the Kryptonite ray with a firefighter's axe, whereupon Superman escapes. The computer becomes self-aware, defending itself against Gus's attempts to disable it. Ross and Lorelei escape the control room, but Vera is transformed into a cyborg under the supercomputer's control. She attacks her brother and Lorelei with beams of energy that immobilize them. Superman returns with a canister of the beltric acid, which he places by the supercomputer, which does not resist as it suspects no danger. The intense heat emitted by the supercomputer causes the acid to turn volatile, destroying the supercomputer. Superman flies away with Gus, leaving Ross and his cronies to the authorities. He drops Gus off at a West Virginian coal mine, where Superman recommends him to the company as a computer programmer but Gus refuses the job, deciding to take a bus to Metropolis. Superman returns to Metropolis. As Clark, he pays a visit to Lana, who has moved to Metropolis after Brad's numerous romantic advances. Brad shows up, having stalked Lana on her way across the country. He attacks Clark, only to end up falling onto a room service cart. Lana has also found employment at the Daily Planet as Perry White's new secretary, to the surprise of Lois Lane, who returned from her vacations with an article about corruption in Bermuda and has a new-found respect for Clark after reading his story. Before heading to lunch with Lana, Superman restores the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then flies into the sunrise for further adventures. 

=====

With the Vatican having financial difficulties during World War II, a young priest from America is sent for, recommended because of his accounting skill. Father John Flaherty does indeed have a good head for figures, but also believes in any means to an end. To raise money for the church, he is willing to enter into a black market operation with the Mafia, selling cartons of cigarettes by the tens of thousands for a percentage of the take. The priest's morals are strained further when he develops a romantic interest in Clara, a young nun who is having a crisis of faith. They begin an affair, but Flaherty does not confess to her his true identity. One day during a papal audience, Clara catches sight of Flaherty in his clerical robes. Her love and trust are shattered. Flaherty's methods may be overlooked, but his success at raising funds is appreciated by some of his superiors as he rises to become a monsignor, then a cardinal. When an ill-advised stock investment costs the Vatican millions, however, Flaherty must pay the price for his deeds. 

=====

Famed playwright Sidney Bruhl debuts the latest in a series of Broadway flops and returns to his opulent Long Island home and his wife Myra. Although their financial situation is not dire, Sidney is starving for a hit. He receives a manuscript of a play called Deathtrap, written by one of his students, Clifford Anderson, that he considers to be near-perfection. Clifford recently attended one of Sidney's writing workshops and is now asking for input on his play. Sidney tells Myra that the best idea he has had lately is to murder Clifford and produce the play as his own. Myra realizes that's he's not just talking idly. Sidney invites Clifford to their secluded home, decorated with weapons from his plays, to discuss Clifford's play. Clifford arrives by train. Over the course of an evening, Myra tries desperately to convince Sidney to work with Clifford as equal partners but to no avail. Sidney then attacks Clifford and strangles him with a chain. Sidney removes the body but still has to convince Myra to conspire with him. She reveals nothing when they receive an unexpected visit from the psychic Helga Ten Dorp, a minor celebrity staying with the Bruhls' neighbors. Helga senses pain and death in the house. Before she leaves, she warns Sidney about a man in boots who will attack him. As Myra prepares for bed, she begins to come to terms with what Sidney has done. She heads downstairs for a drink but a sound spooks her and she flees back upstairs, suspecting an intruder. Sidney takes her back downstairs to prove that all is well and they return to the bedroom. The calm is broken when Clifford bursts through the bedroom window and beats Sidney with a log. Clifford chases Myra through the house until her weak heart gives out and she collapses and dies. Sidney calmly descends the stairs, uninjured, and joins Clifford. They exchange a few words about what to do with Myra's body, then exchange a passionate kiss. The previous few hours are revealed to have been an elaborate ruse to kill Myra. Clifford moves in with Sidney and the two work together at a partner's desk. Sidney suffers from writer's block but Clifford busily types page after page of a new play that he suspiciously keeps under lock and key. While Clifford is out grocery shopping, Sidney tries to break into the drawer but fails to before Clifford returns home. He waits for Clifford to retrieve his play, then switches Clifford's manuscript with a fake. Sidney is horrified to read that Clifford is using the true story of Myra's murder as the basis of a new play called Deathtrap. He angrily confronts Clifford, who boasts about the play's potential and insists he will write it with or without Sidney's approval. Clifford offers to share the credit with Sidney, who comes to believe that Clifford is a sociopath. Sidney plays along with the collaboration on Deathtrap while he plots a solution. A few days later, Helga stops by, ostensibly for candles in anticipation of a predicted thunderstorm. Almost immediately after meeting Clifford, she warns Sidney that Clifford is the man in boots. Sidney asks Clifford to arm himself with an axe to demonstrate a bit of stage business, then produces a gun. He intends to shoot Clifford, claim it was in self-defense and dispose of the Deathtrap manuscript. But Sidney finds his gun to be empty. Clifford had anticipated some such scheme from him and has loaded the bullets into a different gun. Clifford now intends to use Sidney's attempted betrayal-and-axe scheme in the play. He secures Sidney to a chair with manacles and tells him he is going to pack up and leave. He warns Sidney to not try to stop the production of the play. However, Clifford is unaware the manacles are trick shackles, once the property of Harry Houdini. Sidney easily releases himself, grabs a crossbow and incapacitates Clifford with a single shot. Before Sidney can dispose of the body, the storm hits with full force and the house suffers a blackout. A flash of lightning illuminates the living room and a fleeting figure scurries through. It is Helga, thinking Sidney is in danger and coming to help. She realizes that Sidney actually poses the threat and grabs a gun while Sidney finds a knife. Clifford regains consciousness and trips Helga. The gun goes flying and a struggle for it ensues. Clifford stumbles to his feet, grabs the axe and swings it at Sidney. In that moment, the scene transitions to a stage version of itself, with actors before a full house. The on-stage struggle culminates with "Clifford" stabbing "Sidney" and both dying, leaving "Helga" victorious. The opening night audience erupts in thunderous applause, and at the back of the theatre stands an exultant Helga Ten Dorp, now the author of a hit Broadway play called Deathtrap. 

=====

Genshiken follows the lives of a group of college students drawn together by their shared hobbies, and the trials and adventures associated with being otaku. The story begins with the introduction of Kanji Sasahara, a shy, confidence-lacking freshman who on club day at university, decides to join a club he would actually enjoy, Genshiken. Over his four years at Shiiou University, Sasahara comes to accept himself for who he is and loses the inhibitions and guilt he once felt and associated with otaku culture, becoming an enthusiastic clubmember, and for a time, a capable club president. As the story of Genshiken progresses, focus is also placed on Saki Kasukabe, a determined non-otaku who initially struggles to drag her boyfriend Kousaka out of the club, and Chika Ogiue, a self-professed otaku-hater who feels a deep- seated shame and self-loathing toward her own interests and hobbies. During the course of the series, the reader bears witness as the group grows in its cohesiveness over time, and bonds form between the characters as they begin to see themselves as more than fellow club members, but friends as well. In this context, club activities such as group outings, the biannual pilgrimage to Comifes, and even simply hanging out in the clubroom, allow the characters' complex relationships to grow into friendship, infatuation, and at times, even love. While a few of them never quite see eye-to-eye about their interests or the lives they lead, they are held together by the bonds of friendship that they share. 

=====

The USS Enterprise is called to Planet Q by Dr. Thomas Leighton, a friend of Captain Kirk's, ostensibly to investigate a possible new synthetic food source. Leighton's true motivation, however, is his suspicion that Anton Karidian, the leader of a Shakespearean acting troupe currently on the planet, is in fact Kodos "the Executioner," former governor of the Earth colony of Tarsus IV. Kodos seized power when the food supply of the colony was nearly destroyed and the people faced starvation. He ordered that half the population be put to death to solve the food crisis, to which both Leighton and Kirk were eyewitnesses. A supply ship arrived earlier than scheduled, but too late to prevent the massacre. Kodos was pursued. A burned body was found and the case closed. Kirk insists Kodos cannot still be alive, and declines Leighton's request that he meet Karidian and his troupe at a party at Leighton's home. However, upon returning to the ship he researches Kodos and Karidian and finds considerable circumstantial evidence supporting Leighton's suspicion: there is no record of Karidian's existence prior to Kodos's disappearance, and photos confirm a close physical resemblance. Kirk goes to the party. Karidian does not appear, but Kirk meets his daughter Lenore, also a member of the troupe, and they hit it off. During a walk outside the two discover Leighton dead. Kirk arranges for the Enterprise to ferry the acting troupe to its next destination. He transfers Lt. Kevin Riley to Engineering, after discovering that he too was a witness to the Tarsus IV massacre. These actions arouse the curiosity of First Officer Spock, who, after an investigation of his own, learns the history of the massacre, Kirk and Riley's connection to it, and that seven of nine witnesses to the massacre have died, in each case when Karidian's acting troupe was somewhere nearby. He discusses the matter with Dr. McCoy. Riley is poisoned, and a phaser is set on overload and left in Kirk's quarters. Kirk confronts Karidian with his suspicions. Karidian does not admit to being Kodos, but argues in defense of Kodos' actions and when prompted to read the ordering of the massacre, does so with barely a glance at the transcript. A computer analysis of his voice results in a near-perfect match with Kodos, but Kirk still hesitates to accuse Karidian. Lt. Riley, recovering in sickbay, overhears Dr. McCoy's log entry and learns that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos. Riley heads for the ship's theater where the Karidian troupe is performing Hamlet, and sneaks backstage, phaser in hand, to exact revenge for the death of his family. Kirk discovers him before he can act and persuades him to surrender the weapon. Karidian, overhearing, is disturbed. Lenore tries to assuage him by revealing that she has been killing off all the witnesses to his crimes. This devastates Karidian, who is tormented by guilt over his actions as governor. Kirk, overhearing this conversation, moves to arrest them both. Lenore snatches a phaser from a security guard and aims at Kirk. Karidian jumps into the line of fire, is hit, and dies. Lenore breaks down and begs her father to wake up and continue his performance. Later, on the bridge, McCoy reports that she'll get the best of care. Having gone completely insane, she thinks her father is still alive and giving performances to cheering crowds. 

=====

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, is en route to Makus III to deliver medical supplies destined for the New Paris Colony. The ship passes close to a quasar-like formation identified as Murasaki 312, which Kirk's standing orders require him to study. Kirk sends a science team composed of Science Officer Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, Yeoman Mears, and three other specialists (Latimer, Gaetano, and Boma) in the shuttlecraft, Galileo, to investigate the formation. Soon after launch, the shuttle is pulled off course. Spock makes an emergency landing on the planet Taurus II, a rocky, fog-shrouded world in the middle of the Murasaki phenomenon. Crewmembers Latimer and Gaetano scout the area, eventually encountering Taurus II's native inhabitants: giant ape-like creatures armed with enormous spears and shields. Latimer is killed by a spear, and Gaetano drives off the creatures with phaser fire. The crew retreat to the Galileo, only to discover that the creatures seem to be preparing for an organized attack. Despite objections from the others, Spock chooses to attempt to frighten the creatures rather than killing them outright. This proves to be a miscalculation, and Gaetano is killed. Meanwhile, Kirk searches for the shuttle, despite concerns from Commissioner Ferris, who is impatient to start for Makus III. Because of sensor interference, the shuttlecraft Columbus is dispatched to search the planet from orbit, and search parties are transported to the surface. One of the landing parties returns with casualties and reports being attacked by the large, furry creatures. Between boulder- throwing attacks by the primitive giants and quarrels amongst themselves, the crew attempt to make repairs on the shuttle. As most of their conventional fuel has been lost, Mr. Scott adapts the landing party's phasers to power the ship. His repairs are eventually successful, but Boma will not leave without giving Gaetano and Latimer a proper burial. When Spock advises against it, Boma becomes insubordinate, to which Spock responds by allowing him the funeral. During the ceremony, the creatures attack again, and Spock is pinned by a boulder. Despite Spock's orders to leave him, McCoy and Boma free him. Spock then manages to get the Galileo off the ground by using the shuttle's boosters. As a result, the shuttle now has too little fuel to escape the planet's gravity or even to achieve a stable orbit, and there is still no way to contact the Enterprise. Spock suddenly decides to dump and ignite all the remaining fuel from the shuttle's engines. The giant flare he produces is seen on the Enterprise view screen just as the ship has left orbit. Kirk reverses course, and the survivors are beamed out just as the shuttle is destroyed on re-entry. Back on board the Enterprise, Kirk questions Spock, trying to get him to admit that his final action was motivated more by emotion than logic. Spock refuses but freely admits to stubbornness, at which the rest of the crew burst into laughter. 

=====

Seventeen-year-old Colombian girl Maria Álvarez works in sweatshop-like conditions at a flower plantation. Her income helps support her family, including an unemployed sister who is a single mother, but after unjust treatment from her boss, she quits her job de-thorning roses, despite her family's vehement disapproval. Shortly thereafter, Maria discovers she is pregnant by her boyfriend, and he suggests marriage, but she declines because she does not feel she loves him, or that he loves her. On her way to Bogotá to find a new job, she is offered a position as a drug mule. Desperate, she accepts the risky offer, and swallows 62 wrapped pellets of drugs, and flies to New York City with her friend Blanca, who has also been recruited as a drug mule. Maria is almost caught by U.S. customs who are suspicious after finding Maria's $800 in cash and wanting to make a surprise visit to a sister she "hasn't seen in years", but not knowing anywhere else to go if she isn't home. She tells them that the father of her child paid for her plane ticket. She avoids being X-rayed due to her pregnancy, and is released. The traffickers collect Maria, Blanca, and Lucy, another more experienced mule that Maria had befriended during her recruitment. The mules are held in a motel room until they pass all the drug pellets. Lucy falls ill when a drug pellet apparently ruptures inside her. Unknown to the traffickers, Maria witnesses them carrying Lucy out of the hotel room, and she sees blood stains in the bathtub. She comes to the conclusion that the traffickers cut her open to retrieve the other drug pellets inside her body. Scared, Maria convinces Blanca to escape with her while the traffickers are gone. They leave with the drugs they have passed. Maria has nowhere to sleep, and goes to Lucy's sister's house, but doesn't reveal to the sister that Lucy is dead. Blanca soon joins her there. Eventually the sister unexpectedly hears of their involvement in her sister's death and throws them out. Blanca and Maria make an agreement to return the drugs to the traffickers and receive their money. Maria uses some of her drug money to send Lucy's body home to Colombia for a proper burial. Maria and Blanca are ready to board the plane back to Colombia when Maria decides to stay in the United States. Blanca returns home without Maria. 

=====

The novel tells the story of Lara Cameron, a successful real estate developer who came from a broken family in Nova Scotia. Lara's mother and her male twin die during their birth and her Scottish father, who collects rents for boarding houses, doesn't want her. Early in life, she learns to fend for herself and how to get her own way in a male-dominated world. After her father's death due to a sudden heart failure, Lara takes up her father's job along with her own kitchen work in the boarding house. She meets a man called Charles Cohn who is much impressed by her. He hands her a contract for building. To acquire a fine piece of land, she makes a deal with the owner of the boarding house to secure her first building in exchange for her body. Thrilled at her success, she moves to Chicago to start her real estate empire. Even though she encounters many problems, she is able to overcome them all and become one of America's most successful businesswomen, and receives the nickname, "Iron Butterfly." She falls in love with a talented pianist, Philip Adler, and marries him. She is on the verge of losing everything she has achieved as well as the one man she loves, but the Iron Butterfly miraculously recovers from all her shattered dreams and gains back all her hopes and the only man whom she ever truly loved. Category:1992 American novels Category:Novels by Sidney Sheldon Category:Novels set in Chicago 

=====

The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The book begins when his son is born and Dombey's wife dies shortly after giving birth. Following the advice of Mrs. Louisa Chick, his sister, Dombey employs a wet nurse named Mrs. Richards (Toodle). Dombey already has a six-year-old daughter Florence, but, bitter at her not having been the desired boy, he neglects her continually. One day, Mrs. Richards, Florence, and her maid, Susan Nipper, secretly pay a visit to Mrs. Richard's house in Staggs's Gardens so that Mrs. Richards can see her children. During this trip, Florence becomes separated from them and is kidnapped for a short time by Good Mrs. Brown, before being returned to the streets. She makes her way to Dombey and Son's offices in the City and there is found and brought home by Walter Gay, an employee of Mr. Dombey, who first introduces her to his uncle, the navigation instrument maker Solomon Gills, at his shop The Wooden Midshipman. The child, named Paul after his father, is a weak and sickly child, who does not socialise normally with others; adults call him "old fashioned". He is intensely fond of his sister Florence, who is deliberately neglected by her father as a supposedly irrelevant distraction. Paul is sent to the seaside at Brighton for his health, where he and Florence lodge with the ancient and acidic Mrs. Pipchin. Finding his health beginning to improve there, Mr. Dombey keeps him at Brighton and has him educated there at Dr. and Mrs. Blimber's school, where he and the other boys undergo both an intense and arduous education under the tutelage of Mr. Feeder, B.A. and Cornelia Blimber. It is here that Paul is befriended by a fellow pupil, the amiable but weak-minded Mr. Toots. Here, Paul's health declines even further in this 'great hothouse' and he finally dies, still only six years old. Dombey pushes his daughter away from him after the death of his son, while she futilely tries to earn his love. In the meantime, young Walter sent off to fill a junior position in the firm's counting house in Barbados through the manipulations of Mr Dombey's confidential manager, Mr James Carker, 'with his white teeth', who sees him as a potential rival through his association with Florence. His boat is reported lost and he is presumed drowned. Walter's uncle leaves to go in search of Walter, leaving his great friend Captain Edward Cuttle in charge of The Midshipman. Meanwhile, Florence is now left alone with few friends to keep her company. Dombey goes to Leamington Spa with a new friend, Major Joseph B. Bagstock. The Major deliberately sets out to befriend Dombey to spite his neighbour in Princess's Place, Miss Tox, who has turned cold towards him owing to her hopes – through her close friendship with Mrs Chick – of marrying Mr. Dombey. At the spa, Dombey is introduced via the Major to Mrs. Skewton and her widowed daughter, Mrs. Edith Granger. Mr. Dombey, on the lookout for a new wife since his son's death, considers Edith a suitable match due to her accomplishments and family connections; he is encouraged by both the Major and her avaricious mother, but obviously feels no affection for her. After they return to London, Dombey remarries, effectively 'buying' the beautiful but haughty Edith as she and her mother are in a poor financial state. The marriage is loveless; his wife despises Dombey for his overbearing pride and herself for being shallow and worthless. Her love for Florence initially prevents her from leaving, but finally she conspires with Mr. Carker to ruin Dombey's public image by running away together to Dijon. They do so after her final argument with Dombey in which he once again attempts to subdue her to his will. When he discovers that she has left him, he blames Florence for siding with her stepmother, striking her on the breast in his anger. Florence is forced to run away from home. Highly distraught, she finally makes her way to The Midshipman where she lodges with Captain Cuttle as he attempts to restore her to health. They are visited frequently by Mr. Toots and his prizefighter companion, the Chicken, since Mr. Toots has been desperately in love with Florence since their time together in Brighton. Dombey sets out to find his wife. He is helped by Mrs. Brown and her daughter, Alice, who, as it turns out, was a former lover of Mr. Carker. After being transported as a convict for criminal activities, which Mr. Carker had involved her in, she is seeking her revenge against him now that she has returned to England. Going to Mrs. Brown's house, Dombey overhears the conversation between Rob the Grinder – who is in the employment of Mr. Carker – and the old woman as to the couple's whereabouts and sets off in pursuit. In the meantime, in Dijon, Mrs. Dombey informs Carker that she sees him in no better a light than she sees Dombey, that she will not stay with him, and she flees their apartment. Distraught, with both his financial and personal hopes lost, Carker flees from his former employer's pursuit. He seeks refuge back in England, but being greatly overwrought, accidentally falls under a train and is killed. After Carker's death, it is discovered that he had been running the firm far beyond its means. This information is gleaned by Carker's brother and sister, John and Harriet, from Mr. Morfin, the assistant manager at Dombey and Son, who sets out to help John Carker. He often overheard the conversations between the two brothers in which James, the younger, often abused John, the older, who was just a lowly clerk and who is sacked by Dombey because of his filial relationship to the former manager. As his nearest relations, John and Harriet inherit all Carker's ill-gotten gains, to which they feel they have no right. Consequently, they surreptitiously give the proceeds to Mr. Dombey, through Mr. Morphin, who is instructed to let Dombey believe that they are merely something forgotten from the general wreck of his fortunes. Meanwhile, back at The Midshipman, Walter reappears, having been saved by a passing ship after floating adrift with two other sailors on some wreckage. After some time, he and Florence are finally reunited – not as 'brother' and 'sister' but as lovers, and they marry prior to sailing for China on Walter's new ship. This is also the time when Sol Gills returns to The Midshipman. As he relates to his friends, he received news whilst in Barbados that a homeward-bound China trader had picked up Walter and so had returned to England immediately. He said he had sent letters whilst in the Caribbean to his friend Ned Cuttle c/o Mrs MacStinger at Cuttle's former lodgings, and the bemused Captain recounts how he fled the place, thus never receiving them. Florence and Walter depart and Sol Gills is entrusted with a letter, written by Walter to her father, pleading for him to be reconciled towards them both. A year passes and Alice Brown has slowly been dying despite the tender care of Harriet Carker. One night Alice's mother reveals that Alice herself is the illegitimate cousin of Edith Dombey (which accounts for their similarity in appearance when they both meet). In a chapter entitled 'Retribution', Dombey and Son goes bankrupt. Dombey retires to two rooms in his house and all its contents are put up for sale. Mrs. Pipchin, for some time the housekeeper, dismisses all the servants and she herself returns to Brighton, to be replaced by Mrs. Richards. Dombey spends his days sunk in gloom, seeing no-one and thinking only of his daughter: > He thought of her as she had been that night when he and his bride came > home. He thought of her as she had been in all the home events of the > abandoned house. He thought, now, that of all around him, she alone had > never changed. His boy had faded into dust, his proud wife had sunk into a > polluted creature, his flatterer and friend had been transformed into the > worst of villains, his riches had melted away, the very walls that sheltered > him looked on him as a stranger; she alone had turned the same, mild gentle > look upon him always. Yes, to the latest and the last. She had never changed > to him – nor had he ever changed to her – and she was lost.Dombey and Son, > Wordsworth Classics, pp.772–773 However, one day Florence returns to the house with her baby son, Paul, and is lovingly reunited with her father. Dombey accompanies his daughter to her and Walter's house where he slowly starts to decline, cared for by Florence and also Susan Nipper, now Mrs. Toots. They receive a visit from Edith's Cousin Feenix who takes Florence to Edith for one final time – Feenix sought Edith out in France and she returned to England under his protection. Edith gives Florence a letter, asking Dombey to forgive her her crime before her departure to the South of Italy with her elderly relative. As she says to Florence, 'I will try, then to forgive him his share of the blame. Let him try to forgive me mine!'Dombey and Son, Wordsworth Classics, p.801 The final chapter (LXII) sees Dombey now a white-haired old man 'whose face bears heavy marks of care and suffering; but they are traces of a storm that has passed on for ever, and left a clear evening in its track'.Dombey and Son, Wordsworth Classics, p.803 Sol Gills and Ned Cuttle are now partners at The Midshipman, a source of great pride to the latter, and Mr and Mrs Toots announce the birth of their third daughter. Walter is doing well in business, having been appointed to a position of great confidence and trust, and Dombey is the proud grandfather of both a grandson and granddaughter whom he dotes on. The book ends with the highly moving lines: > 'Dear grandpapa, why do you cry when you kiss me?' > He only answers, 'Little Florence! Little Florence!' and smooths away the > curls that shade her earnest eyes.Dombey and Son, Wordsworth Classics, p.808 

=====

In a hidden realm, fairy tale characters inhabit nine magical kingdoms where an Evil Queen plots to rule them. She is held in a Fourth Kingdom prison. This kingdom is under the rule of Prince Wendell, the spoiled, arrogant grandson of Snow White. Weeks before his coronation ceremony, the Queen enlists the help of the brutal Troll King and his three children to release her right before the Prince makes his annual visit to the prison. Prince Wendell is captured by the Evil Queen, who is his wicked stepmother. She turns him into a Golden Retriever while her very own retriever is transformed into a facsimile of Wendell. In a panic, the transformed Prince flees through the prison, stumbles across a mirror portal in the basement, and is transported to New York City. The Troll King orders his bumbling children Burly, Blabberwort, and Bluebell to bring back the escaped Prince while the Queen releases a half-wolf prisoner (who is simply called Wolf) to retrieve him instead. Meanwhile, regular Manhattan inhabitants, headstrong waitress Virginia Lewis and her oafish father Tony are entangled in the mishaps caused by the new magical arrivals to the city, including Wolf falling helplessly in love with Virginia and Tony being given six wishes (which he foolishly uses for personal gain, upon which they have a tendency to backfire). With Virginia having already determined that the transformed Wendell-- named by a fellow waitress as 'Prince' even before Virginia learns his identity is more than a normal dog, Tony uses his last wish to acquire the ability to understand the dog, who urges them to travel back to The Nine Kingdoms with him to break the spell. Tony, feeling responsible for Prince, reluctantly accepts, and Virginia and Tony are taken back to the realm through the magic mirror. At first, Tony and Virginia are desperate to get home, while the magic mirror is being taken from place to place around the Kingdoms - being cleared out of the prison, taken as a prize for a sheep-rearing contest, and then sold in an auction. The group travels the lands in pursuit of the mirror, facing many dangers and challenges in the process, including Virginia's hair being enchanted to an impossible length, pursuit by the Queen's Huntsman, and a conspiracy by the descendants of Little Bo Peep to control a town's wishing well. During their journey, Wolf questions his loyalty to the Queen in order to gain favor with stubborn Virginia and quickly sides with them. This act prompts the Queen to send her relentless and cold-blooded Huntsman to capture the Prince along with Virginia and Tony. Virginia eventually meets the ghost of Snow White, who reveals she is destined to save the Nine Kingdoms. Tony also recognizes the Queen as his long lost wife and Virginia’s mother. They travel to the castle to stop her, but Wolf seems to have betrayed Tony and Virginia. They are thrown into the dungeons where Tony reveals to Virginia that her mother had been suffering a mental breakdown and had tried to drown Virginia the night she left. The Queen has her imposter Prince Wendell crowned king and then tries to poison all the monarchs who attend the ceremony. Luckily, Wolf had switched the poison for a sleeping potion, so everyone wakes up unharmed. Virginia must kill the Evil Queen in self-defense, which pains her greatly. The real Prince Wendell turns back into a human and takes the throne, pardoning the trolls, and allowing them to return to their kingdom after the death of their father. Grateful to Tony for all of his help, Prince Wendell offers him a job at the palace, which he accepts. Virginia and Wolf, now expecting a child, return to New York City. 

=====

The tale begins with an injured narrator (the story offers no further explanation of his impairment) seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion in the Apennines. The narrator spends his time admiring the paintings that decorate the strangely shaped room and perusing a volume, found upon a pillow, that describes them. Upon moving the candle closer to the book, the narrator immediately discovers a before-unnoticed painting depicting the head and shoulders of a young girl. The picture inexplicably enthralls the narrator "for an hour perhaps". After steady reflection, he realizes that the painting's "absolute life-likeliness' of expression is the captivating feature. The narrator eagerly consults the book for an explanation of the picture. The remainder of the story henceforth is a quote from this book – a story within a story. The book describes a tragic story involving a young maiden of "the rarest beauty". She loved and wedded an eccentric painter who cared more about his work than anything else in the world, including his wife. The painter eventually asked his wife to sit for him, and she obediently consented, sitting "meekly for many weeks" in his turret chamber. The painter worked so diligently at his task that he did not recognize his wife's fading health, as she, being a loving wife, continually "smiled on and still on, uncomplainingly". As the painter neared the end of his work, he let no one enter the turret chamber and rarely took his eyes off the canvas, even to watch his wife. After many weeks had passed, he finally finished his work. As he looked on the completed image, however, he felt appalled, as he exclaimed, "This is indeed itself!" Thereafter, he turned suddenly to regard his bride and discovered that she had died. 

=====

The game first begins when the SEAL team members Specter (Paul Mercier), Jester (Jason Spisak), Wardog (Michael Clarke Duncan), and Vandal (Larry Cedar) are alerted by an informant codenamed MALLARD of a black market group called the Sesseri Syndicate, led by a man named Cassrioti Sesseri (Kast Hasa), who are trafficking and selling weapons and plutonium from their bases in Albania and sending them to cities from London to Cairo. The SEALs are sent in to investigate, locate and destroy the Syndicate's weapon caches and if possible, capture a mid-level member named Besnik for interrogation. In the second and third missions the Bravo element in the team are replaced by two, highly trained SAS operatives designated Sabre and Reaver. The SEALs and their SAS counterparts are charged with bringing down the Syndicate, first by shutting down an abandoned factory in Shkodër as well as capturing or killing the man over the factory, A general named Mizlech Rugova, then capturing or killing the remaining leaders at their stronghold, the Sesseri family castle in the Albanian mountains. The team is able to neutralize the Syndicate's leadership and the organization falls apart. In Brazil, a group calling themselves the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Brazil (RAFB) have threatened to seize control of the government there. In the opening cutscene, a rebel deserter who had stolen cocaine escapes through the Amazon jungle until Quixada Christo (Fátima Marques), a leader of the RAFB, apprehends and murders him. Christo, the daughter of a prostitute and a wealthy industrialist, harbors a strong resentment of men, explaining for the RAFB's majority demographic of females. In the first mission, within the slums of Rio de Janeiro, the four-man SEAL team is sent to recover information from an informant. When the SEALs arrive at the target building, the informant is not there, but is being tortured by RAFB members on the opposite building. The team recovers him and later follows him to a discreet location, where he discloses information about a meeting between Christo and the Lucimar, the leader of the local RAFB cell. They eventually capture the cell leader who reveals the whereabouts of an RAFB training camp. The SEALs traveled deep into the Amazonian rainforest and destroyed an underground cocaine factory, which was being used by the RAFB to fund their operations. With their funds cut, Christo and the RAFB made a last desperate attempt to destabilize the government by seizing the "Grand Parana Dam." The RAFB threatened that if their demands are not met, they will blow up the dam, crippling the Brazilian economy. The SEAL team is sent in to retake the dam, defuse any explosive devices on site and kill Christo. The SEALs are successful and the RAFB is no longer a threat. In Algeria, a separatist faction called the Algerian Patriotic Front (APF), under General Heydar Mahmood, are instigating a coup to take control of the Algerian government. APF soldiers are overrunning the city of Bejaia, where CHA (Coalition for Humanitarian Aid) workers and peacekeepers (similar to United Nations peacekeepers) were staying on a Humanitarian mission. The SEAL team is sent to recover the CHA personnel and protect them from APF troops that are in control of the city. They later have to secure an area around the U.S. Embassy, where two State Department workers were left behind in the confusion of the evacuation of the city. They recover them and defend them from continuous attacks from the APF. After a long, intense firefight, an HH-60 Pave Hawk arrives and evacuates the group. In Russia, a group calling itself Force Majeure, also known as the Global Liberation Front, is planning on making and using nuclear weapons to attack the United States. Intel from operatives in Eastern Europe suggests that Force Majeure's movements in the abandoned Kellski naval shipyard in Kamchatka, is a potential terrorist threat. The SEALs are sent in to investigate, supported by two Spetsnaz operatives, codenamed Polaris (Jim Ward) and Bludshot (Quinton Flynn). The team discover evidences that Force Majeure is creating a nuclear bomb. With their findings, the team gets extracted by the USS Michigan. With Force Majeure nowhere to be found, things look grim, but fortunately the Russian Federal Security Service detects the presence of the terrorist group after investigating a supposed nuclear fuel spill. Disguised as members of the decontamination crew, Force Majeure operatives infiltrated the plant with additional terrorists arriving later. Their plan was to steal a vast amount of enriched uranium to be used in their "dirty bomb". The SEALs and their comrades are sent into the plant to escort a radioactive specialist, codenamed Flatfoot, to see how much uranium had been stolen. The findings were not good, as almost all of the uranium storages had been emptied. In the final mission of the game, the SEALs infiltrate a ship, the Bitter Moon, with a large payload of radioactive material, bound for Seattle, Washington. The terrorists are planning to detonate the ship near to the Seattle. Aboard the ship, the SEALs discovered that MALLARD, the informant from the first mission, is actually an operative working for Force Majeure. He had used SOCOM to eliminate the Sesseri Syndicate, thus tying up a loose end, as Force Majeure had bought plutonium from the Syndicate before. The SEALs moves in and defuse all bombs placed on the ship. The female leader of Force Majeure, Valeska Lukanov, is either killed or captured. Mallard, whose real name is Arjan Manjani, is killed. The team releases a smoke grenade as a signal to the USS Michigan to stand down, and the mission is complete. 

=====

The story centers on an emotionally challenged man named Bobby (Christian Bale). He runs away from home in order to escape his abusive stepfather (Daniel Benzali), nicknamed "The Fat", who had killed Bobby's pet mouse and, as Bobby puts it, screamed at his mother until she died as a result. He finds himself in woodlands near Cornwall in England, eventually meeting an old man after being involved in a car accident (John Hurt). Mr. Summers, as the man calls himself, spends his time traveling and giving burials to animals that have been killed by cars, a task he refers to as "The Work". Bobby, also having an affinity for animals, becomes friends with the old man and aids him in his task. Eventually, the pair return to London to confront "The Fat". 

=====

The story takes place in July 1958In-game calendar in a rundown bar owned by Eddie Battito. Roger, one of Eddie's tenants, has stolen a million dollars worth of loan money from a science corporation he had previously worked for and is planning to leave for Mexico City to start a new life. But after a small argument with Eddie, he remembers a little trinket that he had gotten in his early childhood: a cockroach-patterned locket that belonged to his deceased mother, Angelina. Upon its discovery, the locket transforms Roger's soul into a cockroach, and transports him to a mysterious sewer system connected to every section of the bar. His adventure takes him to the basement (which is also Eddie's bedroom), the bathroom, the kitchen, the bar room, Roger's room and finally his research room. As the roach (Roger) explores a world filled with danger at every turn, including rats, garbage disposals, and his own pet cat, Franz, he is constantly being guided by his mother's spirit, who serves as an oracle. The game explores the sad past of both Roger and Eddie, revealing that Roger had been abandoned to an abusive nun, was the center of bullying as a young man, and was never taken seriously by his superiors. Eddie has had just as bad a life, having his beloved wife die during childbirth and giving up his son out of grief and his livelihood stumbling. Eddie does not realize that his wife, Angelina, was Roger's mother, nor does Roger know that Angelina was Eddie's wife. During Roger's exploration, he is forced to extinguish the pilot light to a gas stove in the kitchen to save a baby cockroach that, in turn, assists him in jamming the garbage disposal with a spoon. This act eventually causes the whole bar to be filled with gas. Roger must then set off a smoke detector to wake Eddie and then finally reach the locket in his own unconscious body's hand. With both men safely out of the bar when it explodes, Roger and Eddie discover that they are, in fact, father and son, which was exactly as the oracle planned. There are four possible endings to the storyline. If Eddie makes it out and Roger doesn't (if Eddie is warned of the fire but Roger is left on the floor), Eddie ends up as a homeless drunk. If Roger makes it out and Eddie doesn't, Roger tries to flee the country but is caught, charged with Eddie's murder, and remanded to an asylum for the criminally insane. If neither make it out, the ghost of Angelina narrates, telling of the death of both men, the destruction of the bar for urban renewal and that the ghosts of all three souls haunt the area where their dreams died. If both of them make it out, Eddie recognizes the cockroach locket (that contains a photo of Angelina) and they reconcile as re-united father and son before both reveal the truth about their past. The family is reunited and they travel together to Mexico with the embezzled money, which Eddie uses to buy a new bar while Roger sets up a small lab to study roaches. 

=====

The film stars Cryer as Morgan Stewart, the son of a Republican senator from Virginia who has spent most of his life away at boarding school. An eccentric boy who is a fan of horror films and school dances, his personality does not fit in with the carefully calculated conservative image his mother (Redgrave) has designed for their family. He is brought home to help with his father's campaign for re-election as Senator, and immediately butts heads with his parents, refusing to be the "Cardboard Cutout" they demand. Threatened with military school, Morgan discovers that his top advisors are setting the family up to take the fall for their crimes. With the help of a zany new girlfriend (Davis) he manages to save the day, and loosen up his family in the process. 

=====

Rutger Hauer in Escape from Sobibor The film begins with a new trainload of Polish Jews arriving for processing at Sobibor. The German Commandant gives them a welcoming speech, assuring the new arrivals that the place is a work camp. Other SS officers move along the assembled lines of prisoners, selecting a small number who have trade skills (such as goldsmiths, seamstresses, shoemakers, and tailors). The remaining prisoners are sent away to a different part of the camp from which a pillar of smoke rises day and night. It is some time before the new prisoners realize Sobibor is a death camp, all of the other Jews are exterminated in gas chambers, and their corpses are cremated in large ovens. The small number of prisoners who are kept alive in the other part of the camp are charged with sorting the belongings taken from those who are murdered and then repairing the shoes, recycling the clothing, and melting down any silver or gold to make jewelry for the SS officers. Despite their usefulness, these surviving prisoners' existence is precarious, and beatings and murders can occur at any time. Gustav Wagner is the most clever and sadistic of the German officers. When two prisoners escape from a work detail in the nearby forest, Wagner forces the remaining 13 prisoners of the work gang to each select one other prisoner to die with them and then executes all 26. The leader of the prisoners, Leon Feldhendler, realizes when the trains eventually stop coming, the camp will have outlived its usefulness, and all the remaining Jews will be murdered. He devises a plan for every prisoner to escape, by luring the SS officers and NCOs into the prisoners' barracks and work huts one by one and killing them as quietly as possible. Once all of the Germans are dead, the prisoners will assemble into columns and simply march out of the camp as if they have been ordered to, and it is hoped the Ukrainian Guards, not knowing what is going on and with no Germans left alive to give orders or raise the alarm, will not interfere. A new group of prisoners arrives, Russian Jews who were soldiers with the Soviet army. Their leader, Pechersky, and his men willingly join the revolt, their military skills proving invaluable. The Camp Kommandant leaves for several days, taking Wagner with him, which proves an advantage as the most cunning of the SS officers will be absent from Sobibor. On 14 October 1943, the plan goes into action. One by one, SS officers and NCOs are lured into traps set by groups of prisoners armed with knives and clubs. Eleven Germans are killed, but one officer, Karl Frenzel, unwittingly evades his killers, discovers the corpse of one of his colleagues, and raises the alarm. By now, the prisoners have assembled on the parade ground and, realizing the plan has been discovered, Pechersky and Feldhendler urge the prisoners to revolt and flee the camp. Most of the 600 prisoners stampede for the perimeter fences, some of the Jews using captured rifles to shoot their way through the Ukrainian guards. Other guards open fire with heavy machine guns from observation towers, cutting many of the fleeing prisoners down, and other would-be escapees are killed on the minefield surrounding the camp. But over 300 Jews reach the forest and escape. As the survivors flee deeper into the forest, famed newscaster Howard K. Smith narrates the experiences and fates that befell some of the survivors whose accounts the film was based on. Of the 300 prisoners who escaped, only approximately 50 survived to see the end of the war in 1945. For example, Alexander Pechersky makes it back to Soviet lines and rejoins the Red Army, surviving the war, and Feldhendler lives to see the end of the war but is killed shortly afterwards in a clash with anti- Semitic Poles. After the uprising, the largest escape from a prison camp of any kind in Europe during World War II, Sobibor was bulldozed to the ground, and trees were planted on the site to remove any sign of its existence. 

=====

In 1521 England, Queen Catherine of Aragon's failure to provide King Henry VIII a male heir has strained their marriage. Thomas Boleyn and his brother-in-law Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, plan to install Boleyn's youngest daughter Mary, wife of courtier William Carey, as the king's mistress. Mary's sister Anne, who recently returned from the French court, and brother George help Mary prepare, and Henry soon takes a liking to Mary. Queen Catherine, meanwhile, becomes displeased with the situation, as she considered Mary one of her dear ladies- in-waiting. Before long, Mary becomes pregnant with the king's child. Both the Howard and Boleyn families receive lands and titles as a reward for their service, elevating their status amongst the other noble families of the royal court. Anne catches the eye of Henry Percy, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Northumberland, and marries him in secret. Percy, however, is set to marry Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey discovers and forbids the union. Anne's family sends her to Hever Castle as punishment for the potential scandal. Mary gives birth to a daughter in 1524 and names her Catherine. The king, while disappointed, becomes determined to impregnate her with a son, and Mary soon becomes pregnant again. George marries Jane Parker, another of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, but their marriage is an unhappy one. Anne returns to court on her family's orders to ensure Henry is not distracted from Mary. Instead of doing as she's told, Anne seduces the king and wins him over. Mary eventually gives birth to a son, who she names after the king. She realizes, however, it is not enough as everyone will consider the child illegitimate. As Mary focuses her attention toward her children and starts losing favor with Henry, her family begins supporting Anne in her quest to win the king over. Anne puts pressure on Henry to set Queen Catherine aside, refusing to give in to his desires until they are married. Henry, however, finds himself unable to do so with religious opposition. With Anne entertaining the king, Mary is tasked with sleeping with him to prevent his attention from going elsewhere. She visits her children every summer at Hever and soon reconciles with her husband. Eventually, Queen Catherine stands trial for the validity of her marriage to Henry. The king believes she consummated her previous marriage with his dead brother, Prince Arthur, and did not come into their marriage a virgin. The Queen is banished, and Anne, now engaged to marry Henry, adopts Mary's son to ensure she has a male heir to the throne. Mary, meanwhile, loses her husband to the sweating sickness. Anne's determination to become queen reaches new heights while George becomes the subject of suspicions that he is engaging in relationships with male courtiers. Essex landowner William Stafford begins courting Mary, who becomes attracted to him because of his love for her children and the possibility of living the simple country life he can offer her. Anne suffers a decline in popularity during her travels abroad, culminating in the King and Queen of France, who do not tolerate her position, refusing to meet her. She eventually sleeps with Henry after he grants her a title and marries him when he installs a new Archbishop and proclaims himself Head of the Church of England. Anne gives birth to a daughter in 1533, who she names Elizabeth. Mary marries William but receives orders to stay at court until Anne gives birth to a son. Anne, however, starts to lose the king's favor after several miscarriages and stillbirths. Henry suffers an injury to his leg while jousting in 1536, and his time recovering stokes worries that public sentiment is turning. Anne, meanwhile, grows increasingly paranoid, convinced that she has lost the support of her family and the country and that Henry is in love with lady-in- waiting Jane Seymour. She rejoices in her new pregnancy after hearing news of Queen Catherine's death but soon miscarries. Henry discovers the child was born severely malformed and begins courting Jane Seymour as rumors that Anne is a witch spread. Mary makes plans with William to travel for the country to avoid the turmoil. Before they can do so, Henry places Anne and George under arrest on charges of adultery and incest due to widespread belief that they slept together to give Anne her much-needed son. Anne later presents herself before the Privy Council, which finds her guilty. George and his lover are also convicted and beheaded. Anne is sent to the scaffold on the promise that her punishment is exile to a nunnery. As it becomes clear that King Henry will not be attending, Mary realizes that he intended to execute Anne, who dies by beheading. Mary leaves London with William and both children the same day. 

=====

Mrs. Frisby is the head of a family of field mice. Her son Timothy is ill with pneumonia just as the farmer Mr. Fitzgibbon begins preparation for spring plowing in the garden where the Frisby family lives. Normally she would move her family, but Timothy would not survive the cold trip to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby obtains medicine from her friend Mr. Ages, an older white mouse. On the return journey, she saves the life of Jeremy, a young crow, from Dragon, the farmer's cat– the same cat who killed her husband, Jonathan. Jeremy suggests she seek help in moving Timothy from an owl who dwells in the forest. Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to the owl's tree, but the owl says he cannot help, until he finds out that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby. He suggests that Mrs. Frisby seek help from the rats who live in a rosebush near her. Mrs. Frisby discovers the rats have a literate and mechanized society. They have technology such as elevators, have tapped the electricity grid to provide lighting and heating and have acquired other human skills, such as storing food for the winter. Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Mrs. Frisby of the rats' capture by scientists working for a laboratory located at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the subsequent experiments that the humans performed on the rats, which increased the rats' intelligence to the point of being able to read, write and operate complicated machines, as well as enhancing their longevity and strength. This increased intelligence and strength allowed them to escape from the NIMH laboratories and migrate to their present location. Jonathan Frisby and Mr. Ages were the only two survivors of a group of eight mice who had been part of the experiments at NIMH and made the rats' escape possible. Out of their respect and unending gratitude for Jonathan, the rats agree to move Mrs. Frisby's house to a location safe from the plow. Nicodemus also tells Mrs. Frisby about "The Plan", which is to abandon their lifestyle of dependence on humans, which some rats regard as theft, for a new, independent farming colony. One rat, Jenner, disagreed vehemently with The Plan and left the colony with a group of followers at some point prior to Mrs. Frisby's arrival. To move the Frisby home, the rats have to drug Dragon, as it is too dangerous to work in the open with the cat wandering nearby. However, Mr. Ages has a broken leg and cannot dash to Dragon's bowl to put in the drug. Since the rats are too big to fit into the hole in the wall to enter the house, Mrs. Frisby volunteers to go. Unfortunately, she is caught by the family's son, Billy, who puts her in a cage. While captured, Mrs. Frisby overhears the Fitzgibbons discussing an incident at a nearby hardware store in which a group of rats were electrocuted after seemingly attempting to steal a small motor. This has attracted the attention of a group of men who have offered to exterminate the rat colony on Fitzgibbons' land free of charge for him. At night, the rat Justin comes to save Mrs. Frisby and manages to get her out of the cage. Mrs. Frisby warns Justin of what she learned while captured; they assume that the rats at the hardware store were all from Jenner's group and that the group of men were from NIMH and are looking for them specifically. The successful house move allows the mouse family to remain, so that Timothy has time to recover before moving to their summer home. Although the rats have not yet had time to move everything they needed for The Plan, they manage to destroy their underground rooms and create the illusion that they are just regular rats by placing rubbish in the remaining rooms. As the others move, ten rats stay behind so the exterminators would not think the rat hole has been abandoned. When the exterminators fill the rat hole with poisonous gas, eight of the ten rats manage to escape, while two rats die in the hole. It is not revealed exactly who these two are. Once Timothy recovers, Mrs. Frisby and her family move to their summer home and Mrs. Frisby tells her children the full story of their father and the rats of NIMH. 

=====

New Zealand-settled Esha (Esha Deol) is attracted to fellow-student Rahul (Tushar Kapoor). Rahul too is attracted to Esha. Esha returns home to India and tells her parents (Raj Babbar, Neena Kulkarni) about her love for Rahul. The family is pleased and proceeds to finalize the marriage. They accompany Esha to Rahul's house. Rahul's parents (Rajesh Khanna, Smita Jaykar) approve of Esha. But when they ask Rahul, to everyone's shock, he refuses to marry Esha under any circumstances. 

=====

Vathek capitalised on the eighteenth- (and early nineteenth-) century obsession with all things Oriental (see Orientalism), which was inspired by Antoine Galland's translation of The Arabian Nights (itself retranslated, into English, in 1708). Beckford was also influenced by similar works from the French writer Voltaire. His originality lay in combining the popular Oriental elements with the Gothic stylings of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). The result stands alongside Walpole's novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) in the first rank of early Gothic fiction. 

=====

Vathek and Giaour, an illustration to William Beckford's Vathek in Late 18th - early 19th century painted. The Giaour withstanding the angry and perilous glances of Vathek without the slightest emotion, while the courtiers fall prostrate with their faces on the Ground. The novel chronicles the fall from power of the Caliph Vathek, who renounces Islam and engages with his mother, Carathis, in a series of licentious and deplorable activities designed to gain him supernatural powers. At the end of the novel, instead of attaining these powers, Vathek descends into a hell ruled by the fallen angel Eblis where he is doomed to wander endlessly and speechlessly. Vathek, the ninth caliph of the Abassides, ascended to the throne at an early age. He is a majestic figure, terrible in anger (one glance of his flashing eye can make "the wretch on whom it was fixed instantly [fall] backwards and sometimes [expire]"), and addicted to the pleasures of the flesh. He is intensely thirsty for knowledge and often invites scholars to converse with him. If he fails to convince the scholar of his points of view, he attempts a bribe; if this does not work, he sends the scholar to prison. To better study astronomy, he builds an observation tower with 11,000 steps. A hideous stranger arrives in town, claiming to be a merchant from India selling precious goods. Vathek buys glowing swords with letters on them from the merchant, and invites the merchant to dinner. When the merchant does not respond to Vathek's questions, Vathek looks at him with his "evil eye", but this has no effect, so Vathek imprisons him. The next day, he discovers that the merchant has escaped and his prison guards are dead. The people begin to call Vathek crazy. His mother, Carathis, tells him that the merchant was "the one talked about in the prophecy", and Vathek admits that he should have treated the stranger kindly. Vathek wants to decipher the messages on his new sabres, offers a reward to anyone who can help him, and punishes those who fail. After several scholars fail, one elderly man succeeds: the swords say "We were made where everything is well made; we are the least of the wonders of a place where all is wonderful and deserving, the sight of the first potentate on earth". But the next morning, the message has changed: the sword now says "Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of which he should remain ignorant, and to undertake that which surpasses his power". The old man flees before Vathek can punish him. However, Vathek realises that the writing on the swords really did change. Vathek then develops an insatiable thirst and often goes to a place near a high mountain to drink from one of four fountains there, kneeling at the edge of the fountain to drink. One day he hears a voice telling him to "not assimilate [him]self to a dog". It was the voice of the merchant who had sold him the swords, a mysterious man whom Vathek calls "Giaour", an Ottoman term used for non-believers. The Giaour cures his thirst with a potion and the two men return to Samarah. Vathek returns to immersing himself in the pleasures of the flesh, and begins to fear that the Giaour, who is now popular at Court, will seduce one of his wives. Vathek makes a fool of himself trying to out-drink the Giaour, and to out-eat him; when he sits upon the throne to administer justice, he does so haphazardly. His prime vizier rescues him from disgrace by whispering that Carathis had read a message in the stars foretelling a great evil to befall Vathek and his vizir Morakanabad; the vizier informs Vathek that Carathis advises him to ask the Giaour about the drugs he used in the potion, lest that be a poison. When Vathek confronts him, the Giaour only laughs, so Vathek gets angry and kicks him. The Giaour is transformed into a ball and Vathek compels everyone in the palace to kick it, even the resistant Carathis and Morakanabad. Then Vathek has the whole town kick the ball-shaped merchant into a remote valley. Vathek stays in the area and eventually hears Giaour's voice telling him that if he will worship the Giaour and the jinns of the earth, and renounce the teachings of Islam, he will bring Vathek to "the palace of the subterrain fire" (22) where Soliman Ben Daoud controls the talismans that rule over the world. Vathek agrees, and proceeds with the ritual that the Giaour demands: to sacrifice fifty of the city's children. In return, Vathek will receive a key of great power. Vathek holds a "competition" among the children of the nobles of Samarah, declaring that the winners will receive "endless favors". As the children approach Vathek for the competition, he throws them inside an ebony portal to be sacrificed. Once this is finished, the Giaour makes the portal disappear. The Samaran citizens see Vathek alone and accuse him of having sacrificed their children to the Giaour, and form a mob to kill Vathek. Carathis pleads with Morakanabad to help save Vathek's life; the vizier complies, and calms the crowd down. Vathek wonders when his reward will come, and Carathis says that he must fulfill his end of the pact and sacrifice to the Jinn of the earth. Carathis helps him prepare the sacrifice: she and her son climb to the top of the tower and mix oils to create an explosion of light. The people, presuming that the tower is on fire, rush up the stairs to save Vathek from being burnt to death. Instead, Carathis sacrifices them to the Jinn. Carathis performs another ritual and learns that for Vathek to claim his reward, he must go to Istakhar. Vathek goes away with his wives and servants, leaving the city in the care of Morakanabad and Carathis. A week after he leaves, his caravan is attacked by carnivorous animals. The soldiers panic and accidentally set the area on fire; Vathek and his wives must flee. Still, they continue on their way. They reach steep mountains where the Islamic dwarves dwell. They invite Vathek to rest with them, possibly in the hopes of converting him back to Islam. Vathek sees a message his mother left for him: "Beware of old doctors and their puny messengers of but one cubit high: distrust their pious frauds; and, instead of eating their melons, impale on a spit the bearers of them. Should thou be so fool as to visit them, the portal to the subterranean place will shut in thy face" (53). Vathek becomes angry and claims that he has followed the Giaour's instructions long enough. He stays with the dwarves, meets their Emir, named Fakreddin, and Emir's beautiful daughter Nouronihar. Vathek wants to marry her, but she is already promised to her effeminate cousin Gulchenrouz, whom she loves and who loves her back. Vathek thinks she should be with a "real" man and arranges for Bababalouk to kidnap Gulchenrouz. The Emir, finding of the attempted seduction, asks Vathek to kill him, as he has seen "the prophet's vice-regent violate the laws of hospitality." But Nouronihar prevents Vathek from killing her father and Gulchenrouz escapes. The Emir and his servants then meet and they develop a plan to safeguard Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz, by drugging them and place them in a hidden valley by a lake where Vathek cannot find them. The plan succeeds temporarily—the two are drugged, brought to the valley, and convinced on their awakening that they have died and are in purgatory. Nouronihar, however, grows curious about her surroundings and ascends to find out what lies beyond the valley. There she meets Vathek, who is mourning for her supposed death. Both realise that her "death" has been a sham. Vathek then orders Nouronihar to marry him, she abandons Gulchenrouz, and the Emir abandons hope. Meanwhile, in Samarah, Carathis can discover no news of her son from reading the stars. Vathek's favorite wife, the sultana Dilara, writes to Carathis, informing her that her son has broken the condition of the Giaour's contract, by accepting Fakreddin's hospitality on the way to Istakhar. She asks him to drown Nouronihar, but Vathek refuses, because he intends to make her his queen. Carathis then decides to sacrifice Gulchenrouz, but before she can catch him, Gulchenrouz jumps into the arms of a Genie who protects him. That night, Carathis hears that Motavakel, Vathek's brother, is planning to lead a revolt against Morakanabad. Carathis tells Vathek that he has distinguished himself by breaking the laws of hospitality by 'seducing' the emir's daughter after sharing his bread, and that if he can commit one more crime along the way he shall enter Soliman's gates triumphant. Vathek continues on his journey, reaches Rocnabad, and degrades and humiliates its citizens for his own pleasure. A Genie asks Mohammed for permission to try to save Vathek from his eternal damnation. He takes the form of a saintly shepherd who plays the flute to make men realise their sins. The shepherd asks Vathek if he is done sinning, warns Vathek about Eblis, ruler of Hell, and asks Vathek to return home, destroy his tower, disown Carathis, and preach Islam. He has until a set moment to decide yes or no. Vathek's pride wins out, and he tells the shepherd that he will continue on his quest for power, and values Nouronihar more than life itself or God's mercy. The moment is past, and the shepherd screams and vanishes. Vathek's servants desert him; Nouronihar becomes immensely prideful. Finally, Vathek reaches Istakhar, where he finds more swords with writing on them, which says "Thou hast violated the conditions of my parchment, and deserve to be sent back, but in favour to thy companion, and as the meed for what thou hast done to obtain it, Eblis permitted that the portal of this place will receive thee" (108). The Giaour opens the gates with a golden key, and Vathek and Nouronihar step through into a place of gold where Genies of both sexes dance lasciviously. The Giaour leads them to Eblis, who tells them that they may enjoy whatever his empire holds. Vathek asks to be taken to the talismans that govern the world. There, Soliman tells Vathek that he had once been a great king, but was seduced by a Jinn and received the power to make everyone in the world do his bidding. But because of this, Soliman is destined to suffer in hell for a finite but vast period—until the waterfall he is sitting beside, stops. This eventual end to his punishment is due to his piety in the earlier part of his reign. The other inmates must suffer the fire in their hearts for all eternity. Vathek asks the Giaour to release him, saying he will relinquish all he was offered, but the Giaour refuses. He tells Vathek to enjoy his omnipotence while it lasts, for in a few days he will be tormented. Vathek and Nouronihar become increasingly discontented with the palace of flames. Vathek orders an ifrit to fetch Carathis from the castle. While the ifrit is bringing Carathis, Vathek meets some people who are, like him, awaiting the execution of their own sentences of eternal suffering. Three relate to Vathek how they got to Eblis' domain.These narratives were, until restored to their intended place in the novel, in the 1971 Ballantine edition, lost until 1909, discovered by Lewis Melville. They were then published in a separate book in 1912. When Carathis arrives, he warns her of what happens to those who enter Eblis' domain, but Carathis takes the talismans of earthly power from Soliman regardless. She gathers the Jinns and tries to overthrow one of the Solimans, but Eblis decrees "It is time." Carathis, Vathek, Nouronihar, and the other denizens of hell lose "the most precious gift granted by heaven – HOPE" (119). They begin to feel eternal remorse for their crimes, their hearts burning with literal eternal fire. 

=====

This story follows the lives of Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion Silver, and his best friend Tyrone C. Love, who are all searching for the key to their dreams in their own ways. In the process, they fall into devastating lives of addiction. Harry and Marion are in love and want to open their own business; their friend Tyrone wants to escape life in the ghetto. To achieve these dreams, they buy a large amount of heroin, planning to get rich by selling it. Sara, Harry's lonely widowed mother, dreams of being on television. When a phone call from a reality show casting company gets her hopes up, she goes to a doctor, who gives her diet pills to lose weight. She spends the next few months on the pills, wanting desperately to look thin on TV and fit into a red dress from her younger days. However, the casting company does not notify her about the details of her show. She becomes addicted to the diet pills and eventually develops amphetamine psychosis after her life continues to go downhill. She eventually ends up in a mental institution, where she undergoes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Harry, Marion, and Tyrone become addicted to their own product. Eventually, when heroin becomes scarce, they turn on each other, slowly hiding the drugs they obtain from the other two members. On their way to Miami, Harry and Tyrone are arrested, convicted, and sentenced to jail. Harry's arm has become infected from repeated injections, and has to be amputated. Left alone, Marion becomes a prostitute to support her addiction. In jail, Tyrone faces frequent abuse from the guards due to his race. 

=====

The game's story tells of the kingdom of Albareth whose monarch High King Valwyn has disappeared and the dukes and barons are wrestling for power. Barbarians are threatening to invade, and monsters are pillaging the land. The player must assume the role of one of three heroes (choosing between a barbarian, a knight, and a valkyrie) and unravel the conspiracy and find three magic items. 

=====

In 1977, Chris (Christian Bale) and Marion (Emily Watson) are leading a peaceful married life with their child in Eastwood in the London suburbs known as Metroland, the staid commuter region at the end of the London Underground's Metropolitan Line. Their stagnant life is disrupted by an early morning phone call from Chris's childhood friend Toni (Lee Ross), who has returned to England after several years of travelling through Africa, Europe, and the United States as a bohemian poet. Years before, the two shared a dream of escaping boring suburban existence to live in avant-garde splendor in Paris. Toni's return sparks memories in Chris about their wild days in Paris in the late 1960s. Disillusioned about the lifestyle he's chosen—having abandoned his youthful passion for photography for a steady job as a London banker—Chris takes long walks at night, making lists in his head of things for which he should feel grateful. Feeling that something is missing in his life, Chris sees in Toni the person he could have become—a free spirit living a vagabond's existence without worries or responsibilities. Toni outspokenly criticises Chris for his acceptance of a middle class lifestyle, a mortgage, and a nine-to-five job. One night, Chris goes to a punk rock club with Toni who gets him stoned on cannabis. Envious of his friend's lifestyle, Chris begs Toni to reveal his secret for happiness, and Toni responds that it's doing what you want, not what others want. With his dull and tranquil marriage, Chris increasingly obsesses on the past. He rediscovers naked pictures of his former French girlfriend, Annick (Elsa Zylberstein), and in the coming days he thinks back to 1968 when they were in Paris together. He remembers taking on the persona of a French beatnik with a hatred for all things English. His French fantasy was interrupted when he met Marion, who was holidaying in Paris with some friends. Taken aback by this educated and strait-laced Englishwoman, Chris began spending time with her, telling her about Annick and his conflicting feelings towards England. Unimpressed with his unrealistic dreams, Marion informed him that eventually he would get married because he was "not original enough" to avoid marriage and a conventional future. When Annick learned about his friendship with the Englishwoman, she broke off their relationship. Back in the present, Chris is unable to get over the feeling that he has surrendered his youth and ideals to a life he once swore he would never lead. One night he attends a party at Toni's girlfriend's house, arriving without his wife. There he hears Toni casually mentioning that his girlfriend just had an abortion, and then sees him flirting with another woman at the party—doing what he wants to do. Later, Chris meets a beautiful woman, Joanna (Amanda Ryan), who invites him to sleep with her. After learning that Toni in fact asked her to sleep with his friend as a way of ruining his marriage, Chris rejects the offer and returns home to Marion. The next day, Chris comes home from work and finds Toni in the house with Marion. Toni hints that he and Marion had sex, and the two friends get into a fight in the garden. Later, Marion tells him that Toni made a pass at her, but that she rejected him. She tells him that despite all of his talk, Toni is really only jealous of Chris and the life he leads. The next day, Toni shows up at Chris' house to say goodbye before headed to Malibu, where he intends to do some screenwriting. He tries to tempt Chris into leaving his life behind and come with him, but Chris refuses, admitting, "I like my life; I'm content." That night, while Chris is on one of his walks, Marion approaches and asks what he would put on the list for "happy". Chris responds, "Happy—if not now, never." 

=====

Thirteen women, who were sorority sisters at the all-girl's college St. Alban's, all write to a clairvoyant "swami" (C. Henry Gordon) who by mail sends each a horoscope foreseeing swift doom. However, the clairvoyant is under the sway of Ursula Georgi (Myrna Loy), a half-Javanese Eurasian woman who was snubbed at school by the other women owing to her mixed-race heritage, behavior which eventually forced her to leave school. She now seeks revenge by manipulating the women into killing themselves or each other. She also goads the clairvoyant into killing himself by falling into the path of a subway train. The victims are set up and killed off one by one until Laura Stanhope (Irene Dunne), living in Beverly Hills, is one of the few still alive. With the help of Laura's chauffeur and lover (played by Edward J. Pawley), Ursula tries to kill Laura's young son, Bobby, with both tainted candy and an explosive rubber ball, but is thwarted. Ursula follows Laura and Bobby as they flee Beverly Hills by train, unaware that police sergeant Barry Clive (Ricardo Cortez) is escorting them. After confronting Laura, and apparently hypnotizing her into falling asleep, Ursula enters Bobby's room and is caught by Clive. She then flees to the back of the train and jumps to her own death. 

=====

N.Y.P.D. centers around three New York police detectives – Lt. Mike Haines (Jack Warden), Detective Jeff Ward (Robert Hooks), and Detective Johnny Corso (Frank Converse) – who fight a wide range of crimes and criminals. The show features many real New York City locations, as well as episodes based on actual New York City police cases. 

=====

The film starts with a naked figure sitting in a tree in what looks like a mental asylum. Nurses come out to him, bringing a plate of conventional food and also one of a raw fish. As they try to coax him off of his perch, it is the fish that persuades him to come down. As the nurses get him to put on some overalls, the viewer sees that he has a tattoo of a phoenix on his chest. We flash back to Fenix's childhood, which he spent performing as a "child magician" in a circus run by his father Orgo, the knife-thrower, and his mother Concha, a trapeze artist and aerialist. The circus crew also includes, among others, a tattooed woman, who acts as the object of Orgo's knife-throwing feats, her adopted daughter Alma (a hearing- impaired, voiceless mime and tightrope walker whom Fenix adores, with the feeling mutual), Fenix's dwarf friend Aladin, a pack of clowns and a small elephant. Orgo carries on a very public flirtation with the tattooed woman, and their knife-throwing act is heavily sexualized. Concha is also the leader of a religious cult that considers, as its patron saint, a little girl who was raped and had her arms cut off by two brothers. Their church is about to be bulldozed at the behest of the owner of the land, and the followers make one last stand against the police and the bulldozers. A Roman Catholic Monsignor drives into the conflict, saying that he will prevent its demolition, but after he enters the temple to inspect it he deems it blasphemous and unworthy (the girl worshipped is no saint, he says, and the supposed pool of "holy blood" at the center of the edifice contains just red paint), so the demolition is carried out. Fenix leads Concha back to the circus, where she finds out about Orgo's affair, but Orgo, being also a hypnotist, puts Concha in a trance and rapes her. The circus elephant then dies, much to Fenix's grief, and a public funeral is conducted, in which the elephant is paraded through the city inside a giant casket. The casket is then dropped into the city dump, where scavengers open it up and proceed to carve up the elephant and take away the meat. Orgo consoles his son by tattooing a spread-eagled phoenix onto his chest, identical to the one on his own chest, using a knife dipped in red ink. This tattoo, Orgo says, will make Fenix a man. Later on, Concha, during her trapeze act, sees Orgo and the tattooed woman sneak out of the big top. She chases after them and, seeing them sexually engaged, pours a bottle of sulphuric acid onto Orgo's genitals. Orgo retaliates by cutting off both her arms (much like the girl previously venerated). He then walks into the street and slits his own throat. Fenix witnesses this, locked inside a trailer. He then sees the tattooed woman driving off with Alma. Back in the present, Fenix is taken out of the asylum to a movie theater along with other patients, most of whom have Down syndrome. A pimp intercepts them and persuades them to take cocaine and follow him to meet an overweight prostitute. Fenix then spots the Tattooed Woman, who is now a prostitute, and becomes consumed with rage. Back in the asylum, Fenix's armless mother Concha calls out for him from the street and he escapes by climbing down a rope from his cell window. The Tattooed Woman is shown trying to prostitute Alma, who runs away and sleeps on the roof of a truck. The Tattooed Woman is killed and mutilated by the hands of an unseen woman. Mother and son go on to perform an act whereby he stands behind her and moves his arms so that they appear to be Concha's arms that are moving. But Concha soon starts to use her son's hands to kill those women whom she deems a threat to her, including a young performer that he kills with a knife-throw, as well as a cross-dressing wrestler, whom he slashes with a Japanese katana sword. A dream sequence subsequently shows that he has killed many more women, all of whose memories haunt him. Alma finds Fenix and together they plan to run away from Concha and her house. She tries to force Fenix to murder Alma as well, but, after a struggle, he manages to plunge a knife into Concha's stomach. Yet she does not die but taunts him by saying she will always be inside him as she vanishes before his eyes. Through a quick series of flashbacks, it is revealed that Concha actually died after being maimed by Orgo, and that Fenix has actually kept a mannequin of his armless mother for performing on stage and at home, which also now appears in reality to be a thoroughly dilapidated house. He destroys the home-made temple and throws away the mannequin with the help of his imaginary childhood friends, Aladin and the clowns. Alma proceeds to lead Fenix outside the house where police are waiting and order them to put up their hands. As they both comply, Fenix watches his own hands in awe as he does so. And Fenix's realization that he has finally regained control of them brings him joy and peace. 

=====

In the winter of 1823, Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital following an unsuccessful suicide attempt, during which he loudly confesses to murdering Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The young priest Father Volger approaches Salieri for elaboration on Salieri's confession. Salieri recounts how, even in his youth in the 1760s, he desired to be a composer, much to the chagrin of his father. He prays to God that, if He will make Salieri a famous composer, he will in return promise his faithfulness. Soon after, his father dies, which Salieri takes as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri becomes court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. Seven years later, at a reception in honor of Mozart's patron, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Salieri is shocked to discover that the transcendentally talented Mozart is obscene and immature. Salieri, a devout Catholic, cannot fathom why God would endow such a great gift to Mozart instead of him, and concludes that God is using Mozart's talent to mock Salieri's mediocrity. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on Him by destroying Mozart. While Mozart's alcoholism deteriorates his health, marriage and reputation at court, his music remains excellent. Salieri hires a young girl to pose as the Mozarts' maid while spying for him, and discovers that Mozart is working on an opera based on the play The Marriage of Figaro, which the Emperor has forbidden. When Mozart is summoned to court to explain, he manages to convince the Emperor to allow his opera to premiere, despite Salieri and the advisers' attempts at sabotage. When Mozart is informed that his father has died, he pens Don Giovanni in his grief. Salieri recognizes the dead commander in the opera as symbolic of Mozart's father and concocts a scheme; he leads Mozart to believe that his father has risen to commission a Requiem, planning to kill Mozart once the piece is finished and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, claiming the work as his own. Meanwhile, Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder invites him to write an opera "for the people". Mozart obliges despite his wife Constanze's insistence that he finish the Requiem. After arguing with Mozart, Constanze leaves with their young son, Karl. Mozart's new opera, The Magic Flute, is a great success, but during one performance, the overworked Mozart collapses. Salieri takes him home and persuades him to continue the Requiem, offering to record notes under the dictation of the bedridden Mozart. The next morning, Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows. Constanze returns and demands that Salieri leave immediately. In her guilt, she locks the unfinished Requiem away, only to find that Mozart has died from exhaustion. Mozart is taken out of the city and unceremoniously buried in a mass grave during a rainstorm. His mourners, daunted by the weather, watch from the city gate as the coffin is taken away. Back in the present day, Volger is too shocked to absolve Salieri, who surmises that the "merciful" God preferred to destroy His beloved Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in His glory. Salieri promises, with bitter irony, to pray for Volger and all the world's mediocrities as the "patron saint" of their order. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, he absolves the hospital's patients as he passes by, and listens to Mozart's obnoxious laughter in the air. 

=====

As preseason practice begins for the Permian High School football team in August 1988. The town of Odessa, Texas has high expectations for the players and their coach Gary Gaines to win a state championship with their star running back James "Boobie" Miles. The quarterback, Mike Winchell, runs under the expectation of handing off the ball to Miles on most plays. Fullback Don Billingsley struggles with his ball handling and is abused by his alcoholic father Charles, who won a state championship with Permian. The players frequently party as they deal with the pressures of Odessa's expectations. In the season opener against the Marshall Bulldogs, the Permian Panthers make the game a blowout. Gaines intends to bench Miles in the waning minutes, but keeps him in after third-stringer Chris Comer is unprepared to go in. Miles tears his ACL after being tackled at the knee, and afterwards Gaines is widely criticized by the town for keeping Miles in. In the next game during the start of district play, Permian gets blown out as Winchell struggles with consistency in his increased role and the second-string running back gets hurt. Comer goes in, but avoids contact, and discussion arises about Gaines losing his job. However, the Panthers start winning again as Winchell and Comer improve, and safety Brian Chavez and linebacker Ivory Christian emerge as defensive standouts. Miles holds out hope that he can return to playing soon, and although his MRI scan shows otherwise, he rejects it and lies to Gaines so he can suit up again, with his uncle and guardian L.V. backing him up. Permian plays its final district game against Midland Lee, with first place and a playoff spot on the line. The Panthers fall behind, and Gaines puts Miles in out of desperation, but Miles is soon injured again. Winchell leads a comeback drive, but Permian loses as his final pass flies over the receiver's hands. After the game, Billingsley fights with his drunk father, who throws his state championship ring onto the side of the freeway. The next morning, Don reveals to his father that he recovered the championship ring and gives it back to him. Charles partially apologizes and makes the point that his state championship was the best thing that happened to him, and he now has nothing happy except those memories. The loss puts Permian in a three-way tie for first place with Lee and Abilene Cooper, and a coin toss is held to determine which two teams make the playoffs. Permian and Lee win the toss, and as the Panthers prepare for the playoffs, Miles clears his locker. While in his uncle's car, he cries about his future in football becoming bleak. Permian is successful in the playoffs, but all eyes are on the state powerhouse Dallas Carter High School. Permian and Carter make it to the state championship game, which is held at the Astrodome. Miles rejoins the team and watches from the sidelines as the Panthers head into the game. They are initially overwhelmed by Carter's superior size and fall behind, but mount a comeback in the second half to pull within one score. The defense improves its tackling, and the offense pushes through despite injuries. After a defensive stop, Winchell, Comer, and Billingsley mount a final drive, but Comer and Billingsley are injured. Billingsley goes back in, and holds onto the ball for a big run, but it is called back for a holding penalty. On fourth down, Winchell is stopped just short of the goal line as the clock runs out, and Carter wins the championship. Afterwards, Gaines removes the outgoing seniors from his depth chart, and it is revealed that Winchell, Billingsley, Miles, and Chavez went on to have successful lives after their football careers ended, with only Christian receiving a Division I scholarship. The movie ends with the statement that Gaines and Comer led Permian to an undefeated state championship season the following year. 

=====

Two friends and convicts, Joe and Terry, break out of Oregon State Penitentiary in a concrete mixing truck and start a bank robbing spree, hoping to fund a dream they share. They become known as the "Sleepover Bandits" because of their modus operandi: they kidnap the manager of a target bank the night before a planned robbery, then spend the night with the manager's family; early the next morning, they accompany the manager to the bank to get their money. Using dim-witted would-be stunt man Harvey Pollard as their getaway driver and lookout, the three successfully pull off a series of robberies that gets them recognition on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and ultimately the reward for information leading to their capture is increased to $1 million. When Kate, a housewife with a failing marriage, decides to run away, she ends up in the hands of the criminals. Initially attracted to Joe, she also ends up in bed with Terry and a confused love triangle begins. The three of them go on the lam and manage to pull off a few more robberies, but after a while the two begin to fight over Kate, and she decides to leave them. The two criminals then decide to pull off one last job. The story is told in flashbacks, framed by the story of the pair's last robbery of the Alamo Bank, as told by Criminals at Large, a fictional reality television show, with which they taped an interview stating that Kate was only a hostage, not a participant. The show tells the story of their last job, which is known to be a failure when Kate tips off the police and the two are caught in the act. The two then begin to argue when Joe tells the police "You won't take us alive!" and the argument gets to the point where the two of them shoot each other dead. At the end of the film the real story behind the last job is revealed: Harvey used some of his special effects to make it seem as though Terry and Joe were shooting each other. Dressed as paramedics, Harvey and his girlfriend Claire then run in and place the stolen money, Terry, and Joe in body bags while Kate (who was in on the plan) distracts the police by pretending to pass out in shock upon seeing the "bodies." In the ambulance, Harvey used electronics to blow out his tires which sent the ambulance into a junkyard. Under his jumpsuit, Harvey was wearing a fire suit. He lit himself on fire and rigged a bomb to go off. Harvey, Claire, Terry, and Joe flee the scene, leading officials to believe that the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Kate receives the $1 million reward for having turned them in. Reunited, Joe, Terry, Harvey, and Kate make it to Mexico to live out their dream. The last scene shows Harvey and Claire getting married in Mexico and Kate kissing Joe and Terry passionately. 

=====

Seventy-three-year-old Admiral William Riker is a bitter, lonely man in a slow downward spiral following the death forty years earlier of Deanna Troi, who died of undetermined causes during a peacekeeping conference with an enemy race, the Sindareen. Riker, now the commander of an unimportant starbase, is summoned to Betazed as Deanna's mother, Lwaxana Troi, lies dying. While going through Lwaxana's possessions after her death, Riker is reminded of how he and Deanna originally met and began their relationship on Betazed. In a lengthy flashback, it is revealed that Will and Deanna met when Will was stationed on Betazed between assignments, and while there attended a wedding at which Deanna was maid of honor. Will was instantly attracted to her and began to pursue her, though she initially rebuffed his advances, feeling that he was only interested in her physical attributes, and that he preferred quick, thrilling encounters over meaningful emotional intimacy. Over a series of meetings, however, they began to grow closer, as Will encouraged Deanna to embrace impulsive feelings and Deanna encouraged Will to explore his more spiritual side. While visiting her favorite museum, Deanna was kidnapped by a Sindareen raiding party, and Riker's Starfleet security force shot down their small craft in the jungle. Riker tracked them down and killed the only surviving captor, leaving Deanna and him alone together. In the jungle, they consummated their relationship, and Deanna told Will for the first time that they are "Imzadi." However, after their return from the jungle, Lwaxana's violent objections to their relationship and Deanna's seeming compliance led Riker to drunkenly fall into bed with another woman. Deanna discovered them together when she appeared at his living quarters, having planned to tell him she had decided to defy her mother's wishes. Deanna and Will decided not to pursue a relationship and Riker left the planet shortly thereafter, not to meet Deanna again until they were both assigned to the Enterprise-D. In the future timeline, Commodore Data, now in command of the Enterprise-F, tells Riker that scientists studying the Guardian of Forever have discovered that Deanna's death was a focal point in time, causing the creation of a parallel timeline; his intention is to comfort Riker with the idea that Deanna lives on in another universe. Struck with a new suspicion, Admiral Riker has an autopsy performed on Deanna's corpse and discovers that she had been murdered via a poison that did not exist at the time she died. Deducing that someone had gone back in time to murder her and deliberately alter the timeline, Admiral Riker travels to the Guardian of Forever and goes back to the time of the Sindareen peace conference on the Enterprise-D, a short while before Deanna's death. He gives Commander Riker the antidote to the poison, and Riker administers it to Deanna. Her death is thus prevented, but Admiral Riker does not immediately return to his timeline, indicating that the danger to her has not yet passed. Commodore Data has also pursued Admiral Riker through the Guardian, feeling it is his duty to preserve the timeline by any means. He disables Commander Data and impersonates him, taking Deanna away from the peace conference with the intention of killing her. Admiral Riker realizes Data may try this, so he locates Commander Data and with him confronts Commodore Data, and they fight. As the peace conference attendees look on, Deanna finally becomes familiar enough with the representatives from the Sindareen (a race difficult to read empathically without sufficient exposure) to determine that they are deceiving everyone, and have no real peaceful intentions; the peace conference is only an attempt to stall for time so that their race can become more powerful. One of the Sindareen delegates is actually from the future and had decided to go back in time and kill Deanna to prevent this discovery. When Deanna announces that the Sindareen are behaving duplicitously, the Sindareen makes a last- ditch effort to kill Deanna, which is thwarted by Admiral Riker. Once Deanna is safe, everyone from the future return to their proper timeline, where the Guardian of Forever intones that "All is as it was." Data is chagrined that he never thought to ask whether Admiral Riker was correct about the timeline being altered. Now that it has been restored, Admiral Riker and the others have no way of knowing what awaits them. Riker does, however, hear his Imzadi's voice inside his mind, welcoming him home. 

=====

The Moor's Last Sigh traces four generations of the narrator's family and the ultimate effects upon the narrator. The narrator, Moraes Zogoiby, traces his family's beginnings down through time to his own lifetime. Moraes, who is called "Moor" throughout the book, is an exceptional character, whose physical body ages twice as fast as a normal person's does and also has a deformed hand. The book also focusses heavily on the Moor's relationships with the women in his life, including his mother Aurora, who is a famous national artist; his first female tutor; his three older sisters, Ina, Minnie and Mynah; and his first love, a charismatic, demented sculptor named Uma. Salman Rushdie mentions William Babington Macauley in this novel. 

=====

Basil Fawlty is having trouble with his Austin 1100 car. Despite Sybil's insistence that he take the car to a garage for repairs, miserly Basil tries to fix the car himself. Meanwhile, Fawlty Towers has a new Greek chef named Kurt who has been found for them by André, Kurt's culinary trainer and a friend of the Fawltys. Basil and Sybil are intending to host a gourmet night at the hotel. After a rude, pampered boy calls the hotel a "dump" simply because the chips weren't the shape he preferred, Basilever eager to attract the upper crust of clientele in Torquayincludes a "no riff- raff" notice in his advertisement for the gourmet night. Only four people turn up for the occasion: Colonel and Mrs Hall, both JPs; and Lionel Twitchen, one of Torquay's leading rotarians, along with his wife, Lotte. A party of four, the Coosters, were forced to cancel at the last minute due to one of them getting ill, to which Basil remarks "Let's hope it's nothing trivial." Kurt has taken a liking to Manuel. Manuel is not interested, so Kurt seeks solace in alcohol and ends up drunk to the point of being unable to cook, leading the remaining staff to panic as the dinner guests arrive. Basil becomes oversensitive to Colonel Hall's introduction to the other guests. The Colonel has a nervous twitch which causes his neck and head to convulse violently. When Fawlty attempts to introduce the two couples he gets hung up on the name of "Lionel Twitchen", so as not to offend the Colonel, and is unable to introduce them, thereby causing maximum embarrassment for himself. Mr. Twitchen introduces himself, revealing his surname is pronounced "Twychen". Furthermore, Basil's efforts to socialise with the Colonel only succeed in offending him. Basil is horrified to find Kurt has passed out and vomited, so there is now no chef. However, André, who was aware of Kurt's alcoholism, is on hand to help. However, as André's restaurant has a restricted availability, the 'gourmet' menu ends up with only three possible dishes for Basil's guests to choose fromall consisting of various forms of duck: duck with orange, duck with cherries, or "duck surprise" (duck without oranges or cherries). When Colonel Hall asks what happens if they don't like duck, Basil responds "If you don't like duck... then you're rather stuck!" Basil's attempts to obtain the food are complicated. The first duck is ruined when Basil accidentally drops the tray and Manuel's foot gets lodged in it, so Sybil calls André asking for another. The second attempt is hampered by Basil's car, which finally breaks down on his way back with the food; the scene ends with Basil screaming at the "vicious bastard" of a car and giving the vehicle fair warning, followed by a "damn good thrashing" with a tree branch. The staff try to stall for time while waiting for Basil to return with the duck: Manuel struggles through some flamenco tunes on his guitar, Polly sings "I Cain't Say No", off key, from the musical Oklahoma!, and Sybil drunkenly recounts an anecdote about "Uncle Ted and his crate of brown ale." The guests are obviously unappreciative. Basil manages to get back to the hotel on foot and the guests are finally presented with the "duck" which they have so eagerly awaited, only to discover that, due to a mix-up in Andre's kitchen, it has turned into a Bombe Surprise when Basil removes the cloche. Basil is so surprised that he searches through the trifle with his hands to see if there is a hidden duck. When asked to explain this, Basil deadpans, "Duck's off, sorry." 

=====

In 1991, Hong Kong police inspector Wong Chi-shing meets his informant, Hon Sam. At the same time, Lau Kin-ming, Hon's prospective mole within the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, assassinates Sam's triad boss, Ngai Kwun. Lau is later greeted by Sam's wife, Mary, who casually ascertains whether he has any reservations about his mission for Sam. While giving him cash, Mary advises Lau to maintain a low profile. She also confesses that she was the person who ordered the hit on Ngai Kwun, admitting that Sam has no knowledge of this transgression and urges Lau to remain silent. Mary wants Sam to replace Ngai Kwun as the triad boss. Meanwhile, instructors at the police academy discover that Chan Wing-yan, a promising but troubled cadet, is the half-brother of Ngai Kwun's heir, Ngai Wing-hau; he is subsequently discharged from the police force. Chan is later approached by Wong, who asks him why he wants to be a cop; Chan replies, "I want to be a good guy." Wong subsequently makes Chan an undercover cop, sending him to prison to get close to one of Sam's men, Keung. Meanwhile, Hau replaces his father as the triad boss; he is the only Ngai child directly involved in the family business. With Kwun dead, four other underbosses, the "Big Four", dismiss Hau and debate on whether to continue paying their dues to his family. However, Hau forces them to pay up by blackmailing them individually with his knowledge of their mutual betrayals. Sam acts as an agent provocateur for Hau in this affair. By 1995, Chan has become a small-time gangster while Lau rises as a rookie cop. Chan's continual association with Sam and Hau causes his girlfriend to have an abortion because she does not want their child to follow in Chan's footsteps. Hau wishes the troubled Chan to be integrated into the Ngai family and invites him to his daughter's birthday party, where he announces that he wants to retire in Hawaii and divide his business among the Big Four. He also gives Sam control over a Thai cocaine smuggling ring. Meanwhile, Sam leaks information about criminal dealings to Lau, who is able to apprehend many local gangsters and earn a promotion in rank. During Hau’s next drug deal, Chan tips off the police with a Morse code message about an abrupt change of plans for the meeting. The police show up and arrest Hau as the deal is taking place. However, no drugs are found in the suitcase, which instead contains a videotape showing that Wong conspired with Mary to have Ngai Kwun murdered. Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, the police release Hau. Wong is relieved of his police authority pending an investigation for misconduct. While Hau is taken in for questioning, his men assassinate the Big Four and set into motion his plans for vengeance against his father's murderers. An ambush awaits Sam as he meets Hau's contact in Thailand. A bomb is set off in Wong's car; while Wong is unharmed in the attack, his superior and friend, Superintendent Luk, dies in the blast. Lau saves Mary from an assassin and takes her to a safehouse, but decides to have her killed when she rejects his feelings toward her. He reveals to Hau's men that she will be at Kai Tak Airport, where she gets mown down by a car. In 1997, Lau is picked as one of the officers to preside over the ceremony signifying Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China. Wong is cleared of misconduct by his superiors and reinstated to his former post. Hau attempts to enter politics but his support disintegrates after Sam, who survived the shooting in Thailand, turns on him and provides evidence to Interpol about his illegal dealings. Wong brings Hon back to Hong Kong under witness protection after Sam agrees to testify against Hau in court. In the meantime, Hau sends his men to Thailand to take Sam's family hostage in an attempt to threaten Sam to back out. During the confrontation between Hau and Sam, Sam reveals to Hau that his Thai mafia friends are also holding Hau’s family hostage in Hawaii and that he has no real family in Thailand. Infuriated, Hau holds Sam hostage at gunpoint just as Wong and the police show up. During the standoff, Wong fatally shoots Hau, who dies in Chan's arms. Moments before succumbing to his wound, Hau discovers the wire in Chan's jacket and realises that his half-brother is an undercover cop. Sam's tactics against Hau lead to a falling out between him and Wong. Shortly after their final meeting, Sam reluctantly lets his Thai friends murder Hau's family in Hawaii. The pieces are set in place for the first film: Sam goes down the dark path of replacing Hau as the triad boss, becoming Wong's new foe; Lau is a police inspector and Sam's mole; Chan is forced to remain undercover, returning to join Sam's triad. As the handover ceremony takes place, Sam sheds tears over the loss of Mary before hosting a party. Back at police headquarters, Lau handles a case involving a young woman, coincidentally also called Mary, who becomes his fiancée in Infernal Affairs. 

=====

In a far future, mankind is extinct and Earth is populated by several tribes of anthropomorphic animals – collectively referred to as the Morph – who have achieved a level of technology and societal sophistication roughly equivalent to European civilization in the High Middle Ages. The humans are enshrined in legends as having been the ones who gave the Morph prehensile hands, mouths capable of speech, and the ability to think and feel, but the Morph have very little understanding of their long-lost forebears, who exist now only in stories, ruins and a few technological relics. The game begins with the protagonist, Rif of the Fox Tribe, being falsely accused of having stolen the Orb of Storms (a technological relic of humankind which is able to predict the weather), primarily based on the fact that he was one of only two foxes in the area at the time of the theft. Rif volunteers to look for the Orb himself, and is given aid (and guards) in the form of Eeah of the Elk Guard and Okk of the Boar Tribe. As added insurance, the Boar King takes Rif's girlfriend Rhene hostage. The trio circulate throughout the Known Lands over the course of their investigation; along the way, they discover the idiosyncrasies and strengths of the various Tribes under the protection of the Forest King (the Elk Tribe ruler who exerts hegemonic control over the whole region), some of which have other Orbs containing other knowledge left behind by the humans. With the assistance of Sist, the leader of the Rats, they eventually discover that the Orb of Storms was stolen by a Raccoon, an animal rarely, if ever, seen in the Known Lands. More worryingly, Sist reveals that the Boar King has formed an alliance with the Wolves who live far to the north; the two incidents are probably related. Riff, Okk, and Eeah attempt to pass into the Wild Lands, the untamed regions to the north, but are apprehended by Prince, the selfish, spoiled ruler of the castle that the Dogs have sequestered themselves in. Rif manages to escape, and eventually enlists the aid of Alama, a Cat hermit, and a whole tribe of wildcats in freeing his friends. The trio then secure passage further north, to the isolated island the Wolves have claimed for themselves. Once there, they learn that the Raccoon, Chota, has manipulated the Wolves' politics and stolen the Orb to take over the Known Lands, as the Orb of Storms is apparently the key to some sort of system left behind by the humans to control the weather. Deep inside Chota's fortress, a human hydroelectric dam, Rif, Okk and Eeah are able to outwit their enemies, and Chota and the Orb are presumed lost. The trio return to the Known Lands, where Rif makes an impassioned plea for the Tribes to work together, and that by combining their strengths, they won't need the Orbs to make their lives better. The Forest King take his advice, promotes Okk and Eeah, and releases Rhene. Unknown to all, however, the Orb of Storms was not destroyed, and is preparing to initiate Chota's final command to begin a long drought. It awaits input on the ending date of the drought. 

=====

Thirty-nine-year old divorcée Louise Harrington (Linney) works in the admissions office at Columbia University School of the Arts. She is unnerved when she receives an application from F. Scott Feinstadt (Grace), the same name of her high school sweetheart who was killed in a car crash, and calls the student to arrange an interview. His appearance, mannerisms, and painting style closely resemble those of her former love, and she begins to suspect the young artist may be the reincarnation of her old flame. Hours after meeting, the two embark upon an affair. Also complicating Louise's life are her relationship with her ex- husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne), who confesses he is learning to cope with a sex addiction that, unknown to her, plagued their marriage; her ne'er-do-well brother Sammy (Paul Rudd), who is favored by their mother Ellie (Lois Smith) despite his shortcomings; and her best friend Missy (Marcia Gay Harden), who stole the original Scott from Louise before his death and seems intent on doing the same with the contemporary version. 

=====

In 2019, Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta live with others in an isolated compound. This dystopian community is governed by a strict set of rules. The residents are told that the outside world has become too contaminated to support life with the exception of a pathogen free island. Each week, one resident gets to leave the compound and live on the island by way of a lottery. Lincoln begins having dreams that he knows are not from his own experiences. Dr. Merrick, a scientist who runs the compound, is concerned and places probes in Lincoln's body to monitor his cerebral activity. While secretly visiting an off-limits power facility in the basement where technician James McCord works, Lincoln discovers a live moth in a ventilation shaft, leading him to deduce the outside world is not really contaminated. Lincoln follows the moth to another section, where he discovers the "lottery" is actually a system to selectively remove inhabitants from the compound, where the "winner" is then used for organ harvesting, surrogate motherhood, and other important purposes for each one's wealthy sponsor, of whom they are clones. Merrick learns Lincoln has discovered the truth, which forces Lincoln to escape. Meanwhile, Jordan has been selected for the island. Lincoln and Jordan escape the facility, and emerge in the desert. Lincoln explains the truth to her, and they set out to discover the real world. Merrick hires Burkinabé mercenary and former GIGN operative Albert Laurent to find and return them to the compound. Lincoln and Jordan find McCord, who explains that all the facility residents are clones of wealthy sponsors, and are kept ignorant about the real world and conditioned to never question their environment or history. McCord provides the name of Lincoln's sponsor in Los Angeles, and helps them to the Yucca maglev station, before mercenaries kill him. In New York City, Jordan's sponsor, model Sarah Jordan, is comatose following a car crash and requires transplants from Jordan to survive. Lincoln's sponsor, Tom Lincoln, gives Lincoln some explanation about the cloning institute, causing Lincoln to realize that he has gained Tom's memories. Tom agrees to help Lincoln and Jordan but secretly contacts Merrick as he desperately needs Lincoln's liver to survive due to his cirrhosis, who sends Laurent and the mercenaries to their location. Lincoln tricks Laurent into shooting Tom, allowing him to assume Tom's identity. Merrick surmises that a cloning defect was responsible for Lincoln's memories and behavior, resulting in him and every future clone generation to question their environment and even tap into their sponsor's memories. To prevent this, he decides to eliminate the four newest generations of clones. Lincoln and Jordan, however, plan to liberate the other clones. Posing as Tom, Lincoln returns to the compound to destroy the holographic projectors that conceal the outside world. Jordan allows herself to be caught to assist Lincoln's plan. Laurent, who has moral qualms about the clones' treatment after witnessing their fight for survival and learning that Sarah Jordan may not survive even with the organ transplants, helps Jordan. Lincoln kills Merrick, and the clones are freed, seeing the outside world for the first time. Lincoln and Jordan sail away in a boat together toward the island, where all the clones were promised they would go. 

=====

The film starts out with the passengers boarding at Southampton. The lives of the passengers on board the ill-fated ocean liner are depicted. On 14 April, the Titanic strikes an iceberg, throwing the diners in the Café Parisien to the side. Panic strikes the passengers. The crew ready the lifeboats, despite the fact that there are not enough of them. Women and children are loaded, while the men are held back. The radio operators (who take up most of the sinking part of the film) send out an urgent SOS. Fire blows out of the funnels during the sinking and then the boilers explode. The radio room floods, and finally the operators and captain jump ship and the Titanic sinks. Some survivors make it to a lifeboat, where they are pulled in. The captain swims to the lifeboat but when he is offered a spot, he instead swims away and goes underwater to drown. 

=====

The USS Enterprise is thrown back in time to Earth during the 1960s by the effects of a high-gravity "black star". Enterprise ends up in Earth's upper atmosphere, and is picked up as a UFO on military radar. A U.S. Air Force F-104 interceptor piloted by Captain John Christopher (Roger Perry), is scrambled to identify the craft. Fearing an attack, Captain Kirk orders a tractor beam to be used on the jet, which tears the plane apart. The pilot is transported aboard the Enterprise. Fearing Christopher could disrupt the timeline if returned to Earth, Kirk at first decides that the pilot must stay with the Enterprise. When Science Officer Spock later discovers that the pilot's as-yet-unborn son will play an important role in a future mission to Saturn, Kirk realizes he must return Christopher to Earth after all. After learning of the existence of film taken of the Enterprise by Christopher's wing cameras, Kirk and Lt. Sulu beam down to the airbase to recover the film and any other evidence of their visit. They are caught by an Air Policeman, who accidentally activates an emergency signal on Kirk's communicator and is immediately beamed aboard. Kirk and Sulu continue their search, after which Kirk is captured again and Sulu escapes. Spock, Sulu, and Christopher, who knows the base's layout, beam down to recover Kirk. After Kirk's guards are subdued, Christopher grabs one of their guns and demands to be left behind. Spock, having anticipated Christopher would make such an attempt, appears behind Christopher and disables him with a Vulcan nerve pinch. After they return to the ship, Spock and Chief Engineer Scott inform Kirk of a possible escape method by slingshotting around the Sun to break away and return to their time. The maneuver is risky, since even a small miscalculation could destroy the ship, or make them miss their own era. Kirk okays the maneuver, and time on board the Enterprise moves backwards. Christopher is beamed back to his fighter jet at the instant he first encountered the Enterprise, preventing any evidence of the ship being produced, and erasing his memory of his time on the Enterprise. The same is done with the Air Policeman. Enterprise then successfully returns to the 23rd century. 

=====

The novel is set in the early years of the Taishō period with the reign of the Emperor Taishō, and is about the relationship between Kiyoaki Matsugae, the son of a rising nouveau-riche family, and Satoko Ayakura, the daughter of an aristocratic family fallen on hard times. Shigekuni Honda, a schoolfriend of Kiyoaki's, is the main witness to the events. The novel's themes centre on the conflicts in Japanese society caused by westernization in the early 20th century. The main action stretches from October 1912 to March 1914. Kiyoaki's family originated in Kagoshima, where his dead grandfather, the former Marquis, is still revered. The family now lives in grand style near Tokyo, with wealth acquired very recently. 

=====



=====

The film begins with a letter to Sissi, a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, asking her for help in wrapping up the affairs of a friend's dead mother. Sissi cares for her patients to the extent that they appear to be her extended family (in fact, she states that her own father is a patient in the hospital). As such, she has little experience of life outside the hospital. Meanwhile, Bodo, living with his brother, applies for a funerary job but is quickly dismissed because of his inability to control his emotions. He later robs a grocery store and during the ensuing chase indirectly causes a truck to hit Sissi. Taking cover from the police underneath the truck, Bodo finds Sissi, who cannot speak or breathe. In order to save her life, he performs an emergency tracheotomy. Once Sissi is in medical care, they are separated without Sissi ever learning his name. The circumstances of her accident prevent Sissi from re-adjusting to her mundane life at the hospital, as she obsesses about tracking down her saviour. One of her patient friends, who had accompanied her on the day of her accident, helps her do so. She manages to track down Bodo, who is not interested in maintaining contact with her or any other woman. We see several times how Bodo, in a semi-conscious state, embraces a hot stove, having to be restrained by his brother Walter. It later becomes clear that Bodo is hallucinating (or perhaps dreaming) about his deceased wife, having never fully recovered from her death. Walter tells Sissi that Bodo's wife was killed in an explosion at a filling station, while Bodo was in the washroom. After Walter finishes his explanation, Bodo arrives and throws Sissi out. Walter, employed as a security guard at a local bank, involves Bodo in a planned robbery (in preparation for their impending move to Australia together). As they are overpowering the money couriers in the vault, Sissi visits the bank, following the instructions of the letter she received from her friend (concerning the estate of the friend's mother). As she enters, she notices that Walter is employed at the bank. The alarm is tripped by one of the couriers and Walter is shot when a security guard comes to investigate. Without thinking about it, Sissi prevents the guard from shooting the brothers and helps them escape. They deliver Walter to an emergency room, where his last words to his brother are "get off the toilet, Bodo" (referring to Bodo's inability to move on after his wife's death, seeing himself stuck in the gas station's restroom). Sissi hides Bodo at the institution, where he suffers a violent breakdown upon learning of his brother's death on TV. This incident brings Bodo to the attention of the head doctor at the institution, and he is treated and kept as a patient. It is during this period that Bodo explains to Sissi the true nature of his wife's death; a flashback shows Bodo and his wife engaged in a serious argument at the filling station. After heading to the washroom, Bodo witnesses his wife engulfed in a huge explosion caused by her deliberate dropping of a cigarette into a pool of gasoline. Sissi makes the decision to leave and asks Bodo to come with her, telling him of her dream in which they were "brother and sister, father and mother, husband and wife". Meanwhile, Steini, one of the patients, who recognized Bodo's identity and is jealous of him spending time with Sissi, calls the police and in a delusion tries to kill Bodo by electrocution (by throwing a toaster into Bodo's bathtub). The delusion, really a flashback, reveals that Steini had killed Sissi's mother the same way. Bodo however catches the toaster out of the air before it can fall into the tub and chases Steini into the attic. Meanwhile, the police arrive, and Sissi realizes that her mother was in fact murdered and did not commit suicide. She follows Steini to the roof, who offers to jump to atone for his actions. She declines, saying "You're not going to jump anyway", grabs Bodo's hand, and together they jump from the roof of the building, into a small pond. The final scene (taking place at the scene of Bodo's wife's accident) strays into a bit of surrealism: Bodo's past personality, unkempt and finally emerging from the gas station restroom, takes a seat behind the wheel, while the real Bodo gets in the back of the car. As they drive off, Sissi touches (old) Bodo's face to wipe away his tears, but he stops her and does so himself, pushing her away yet again. This visibly stirs (real) Bodo, who leans forward and covers his former self's eyes, forcing him to brake. "Real" Bodo tells "old" Bodo to get out and leaves him standing in the middle of the road thus symbolically taking over "old" Bodo's life; perhaps a visual metaphor for beginning anew. In the international version of the movie, a small scene commences with the abandoned "old" Bodo as a more resolved ending to this surrealistic character and moment. Turning, he notices a sign indicating a bus stop in the field off the road; he waits by it, and an empty bus, driven by Walter, soon arrives to pick up this "dead" version of Bodo. The brothers do not speak, and they drive off a short distance before disappearing. The film ends with Bodo's redemption through his acceptance of Sissi, as he is shown at last content and dry-eyed as the couple arrive at the friend's seaside house on the edge of a cliff (the friend from the beginning of the movie). 

=====

Maburaho is set in a world where every character has the ability to use magic, however everyone's magic is not equal. Each person in the story has a different degree of magic and a set number of times that they can use their magic. The average person is able to use magic fewer than a hundred times, however some people are able to use magic several thousand times. Because of this, a person's social standing is determined by the number of times that he or she can perform magic. If someone uses up all of their magic, his or her body turns to ash and is scattered into the winds. The series first introduces us to Kazuki Shikimori, a second year student from an elite magic school, Aoi Academy. However, unlike his classmates, Kazuki can only use his magic eight times before he turns to dust. As a result, he is at the bottom of the school's social pecking order. However things change one day when Yuna Miyama shows up in his dorm room and declares that she is his wife. Moments later, Kuriko Kazetsubaki and Rin Kamishiro appear at Kazuki's dorm, the former in order to obtain his genes and the latter to kill him to escape her obligation to marry him. Kazuki learns that he is a descendant of most of the world's greatest magicians from both the eastern and western worlds. Even though he has a feeble spell count, his offspring has the potential of becoming a powerful magician. Despite his weak spell count, each spell he performs is treated as an epic event. Kazuki's magic is referred to as the most powerful magic in the world able to achieve miracles. Due to Kazuki's kindness, his spell count begins to drop as he uses his magic on behalf of each girl. First by making it snow in the middle of summer to cheer up Yuna. Second by pulling Yuna out of a vortex that also merges the boy's and girl's dorms together. Kazuki uses his magic again to destroy two Behemoths in order to save Kuriko, who was unable to defeat them. And then, Kazuki reverses time to save Rin's homemade box lunch. He also uses it to save his childhood friend Chihaya Yamase after a monster summoned by Kazuki's classmates appeared at the school festival. Not long after, Yuna accidentally releases an incurable retrovirus on herself which also creates a doppelganger of her with the opposite of all her qualities (ex. the real Yuna loves Kazuki, the clone wants to kill him). Kazuki uses his sixth spell to obliterate the clone. Finally, Kazuki uses his last two charges in order to save Yuna's life from the virus. Each event leaves an impression on the girls and they attempt to keep Kazuki from using any more of his magic and eventually search for ways to increase his spell count. However, their attempts fail when halfway through the series Kazuki uses the last of his magic to save Yuna from the magical retrovirus. However, while Kazuki turned to ash and the ashes scattered, his ghost remains. At this point in the story, Shino Akai appears in order to capture Kazuki and add him to her ghost collection. The girls try to protect Kazuki from Shino and eventually learn that Kazuki's ashes had been scattered into each of their own hearts. But before Kazuki's ashes were completely returned to him, Shino informs Rin and later the rest of the girls that this is not the first time someone's ashes have been scattered and later restored. However, when Kazuki's ashes are returned to him and his body restored, he will lose all of his memories. Knowing this, the girls still return Kazuki's ashes to him. At the very end of the anime series, it is shown that instead of losing his memories as a side effect of restoring his body, Kazuki has now split into ten different bodies. In the novel, the side effect of Kazuki's restoration was gaining a special magical body that can cause disaster to the whole world if he lets out his magic powers. Another side effect of Kazuki's restoration is the overflowing of his magical powers every now and then causing minor mishaps and sometimes great chaos. 

=====

"Mighty Jack" is the name of both a top-secret international peacekeeping organization's 11 agents, and the technologically advanced flying submarine "Mighty-Gō" they use to fight the plots of the terrorist organization "Q". 

=====

John Clark is a lawyer with a charming wife, Beverly, and a loving family, who nevertheless feels that something is missing as he makes his way every day through the city. Each evening on his commute home through Chicago, John sees a beautiful woman staring with a lost expression through the window of a dance studio. Haunted by her gaze, John impulsively jumps off the train one night, and signs up for ballroom dancing lessons, hoping to meet her. At first, it seems like a mistake. His teacher turns out to be not Paulina, but the older Miss Mitzi, and John proves to be just as clumsy as his equally clueless classmates Chic and Vern on the dance-floor. Even worse, when he does meet Paulina, she icily tells John she hopes he has come to the studio to seriously study dance and not to look for a date. But, as his lessons continue, John falls in love with dancing. Keeping his new obsession from his family and co- workers, John feverishly trains for Chicago's biggest dance competition. His friendship with Paulina blossoms, as his enthusiasm rekindles her own lost passion for dance. But the more time John spends away from home, the more his wife Beverly becomes suspicious. She hires a private investigator to find out what John is doing, but when she finds out the truth, she chooses to discontinue the investigation and not invade her husband's privacy. John is partnered with Bobbie for the competition, although his friend Link steps in to do the Latin dances. Link and Bobbie do well in the Latin dances, and while John and Bobbie's waltz goes well, John sees his wife and daughter in the crowd during the quickstep, and is distracted by trying to find them. He and Bobbie fall and are disqualified, and John and Beverly argue in the parking garage. John quits dancing, to everyone's dismay. Paulina, having been inspired by John to take up competing again, is leaving to go to Europe, and is having a going-away party at the dance studio. She sends John an invitation, but he is not convinced to go until his wife leaves out a pair of dancing shoes that she bought him. He goes and meets Beverly at work, convinces her that while he loves dancing, he still loves her just as much, and he teaches her to dance. They go to the party, and John and Paulina have one last dance before she leaves. The end scene shows everyone afterwards: Link and Bobbie are now together; Chic, who was actually gay, dances at a club with his partner; Miss Mitzi finds a new partner, and they are happy together; John and Beverly are back to normal and dance in the kitchen; Vern, newly married to his fiancée, dances with her at their wedding; the private investigator that Beverly hired, Devine, starts up dance lessons; and Paulina, with a new partner, competes at the Blackpool Dance Festival, the competition that she had lost the year before. 

=====

Mike (Tom Hanks) observes his two sons fighting, with one insisting that a promise doesn't mean anything. To make them understand that a promise does mean something, he tells them the story of his youth. In 1969, Young Mike (Elijah Wood), his little brother, Bobby, their mother, Mary, and their German Shepherd, Shane, all move to a new town after their father/husband leaves them. There, Mary marries a new man, Jack, who requires the children to call him "The King". Unbeknownst to Mary, the King is an alcoholic who often gets drunk and beats Bobby. The King also plays Hank Williams’s Jambalaya (On the Bayou). Seeing that Mary has found happiness at last with the King, Bobby insists Mike not tell their mother of the abuse, to which he complies. Instead of withstanding The King’s brutal abuse, the two boys take adventures to occupy the time that would otherwise be spent with The King. After the King beats Bobby so badly that he ends up in the hospital, the King is arrested. However, following the death of his mother, the King is released and returns to their house promising never to drink/ abuse Bobby again. Unfortunately, while the boys are at school, the King lied about the promise and nearly kills Shane in a fit of rage. In the process, the brothers devise a plan for Bobby to escape the King once and for all. Mary also starts to catch on to Jack's true nature and, in the end, requests a divorce due to all the times he beat Bobby and for his heavy drinking. Inspired by the urban legend of a boy named Fisher who attempted to fly away on his bicycle over a cliff nicknamed “The Wishing Spot”, the two convert their eponymous Radio Flyer toy wagon into an airplane. With it, Bobby flies away, and the King is finally arrested by Officer Daugherty, a friendly and caring police officer. Though Mike never sees Bobby again, he continues to receive postcards from him from places all over the world. At the end of the film, adult Mike states to his children "That’s how I like to remember it." 

=====

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, arrives at the planet Beta III in the C-111 system where the USS Archon was reported lost nearly 100 years earlier.Okuda, Okuda, and Mirek, p. 299. Lt. Sulu is the only member of the landing party who beams up from the planet's surface, and exhibits inexplicable euphoria. Kirk beams down with another party to investigate. They find the inhabitants living in a 19th-century Earth-style culture, ruled over by cloaked and cowled "Lawgivers" and a reclusive dictator, Landru. Their arrival is shortly followed by the "Festival", a period of violence, destruction, and sexual aggressiveness.Okuda, Okuda, and Mirek, p. 715. Kirk's landing party seeks shelter from the mob at a boarding house owned by Reger. A friend of Reger's suspects that the visitors are "not of the Body" (the whole of Betan society),Okuda, Okuda, and Mirek, p. 240-241. and summons Lawgivers. When the landing party refuses to come with the Lawgivers, the Lawgivers become immobile. Reger leads the Enterprise landing team to a hiding place. En route, a telepathic command causes the townspeople to attack the landing party. They stun the attackers with their phasers, and find Lt. O'Neill, the other member of the original landing party, among them. They take O'Neill with them but keep him sedated at Reger's advice. Reger reveals that Landru "pulled the Archons down from the skies". Contacting the ship, Kirk learns that heat beams from the planet are attacking the Enterprise, which must use all its power for its shields. Its orbit is deteriorating and it will crash in 12 hours unless the beams are turned off. A projection of Landru appears in the hiding place, and Kirk and his team are rendered unconscious by ultrasonic waves. The landing party is imprisoned in a dungeon. Dr. Leonard McCoy is "absorbed into the Body", i.e. placed under Landru's mental control,Okuda, Okuda, and Mirek, p. 17. but Marplon, a member of the underground against Landru, rescues Kirk and Spock. Reger and Marplon tell how Landru saved their society from war and anarchy 6,000 years ago and reduced the planet's technology to a simpler level. Overhearing their whispered plans, McCoy summons the Lawgivers. Kirk and Spock subdue them and don their robes. Marplon takes Kirk and Spock to the Hall of Audiences, where priests commune with Landru.Okuda, Okuda, and Mirek, p. 844-845. A projection of Landru appears and threatens them. Kirk and Spock use their phasers to blast through the wall and expose a computer programmed by Landru, who died 6,000 years ago. The computer neutralizes their phasers. Kirk and Spock argue that because the computer has destroyed the creativity of the people by disallowing their free will, it is evil and should self- destruct, freeing the people of Beta III. The computer complies. The heat beams stop, and the Enterprise is saved. Kirk agrees to leave Federation advisors and educators on the planet to help reform the civilization. 

=====

In New York City, Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) is a seemingly conventional banker whose wife has left him. In a café, a brunette (Melanie Griffith) who calls herself Lulu spots him leaving without paying. After a teasing confrontation, the two leave in a 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible that, Lulu says, she acquired from a divorce. They embark on a bizarre adventure, including crashing and abandoning the car, stealing from a liquor store and leaving a diner without paying. Believing Charlie to be married, Lulu discloses that her real name is Audrey, and takes him to visit her mother, Peaches. Audrey now adopts a different persona, becoming a demure blonde. Coming to accept Audrey's free-wheeling lifestyle, Charlie realizes he is falling in love with her. The relationship (and movie) takes a dark turn when her violent ex-convict husband, Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta), shows up at a high school reunion; Ray wants her back. Dumping his date, fellow classmate Irene (Margaret Colin), Ray takes Audrey and Charlie on a short-lived crime spree, and intentionally breaks Charlie's nose during it. The trio end up in a motel room where Audrey learns Charlie is no longer happily married and, under duress, reluctantly realizes she has to stay with Ray. Ray tells Charlie to leave, warning him to keep away, but Charlie secretly tails them when they leave the motel. Charlie devises a plan to extract Audrey from Ray's grasp, and having done so, he takes Audrey to his home. However, Ray finds out where Charlie lives, shows up to his home, and begins beating up Charlie. During the scuffle, Charlie stabs Ray, who dies. Audrey is taken away for questioning. Charlie later quits his job and comes looking for Audrey at her apartment, but she has moved. Outside the café where they first met, Audrey (in her third incarnation) appears with a station wagon. She invites Charlie into her car and back into her life. 

=====

In 2069, the European Space Exploration Council's (EUROSEC) Sun Probe discovers a planet orbiting the same path as Earth on the other side of the Sun. The probe's findings have been transmitted to a power in the East by double agent Dr Hassler. Security Chief Mark Neuman traces the messages to Hassler's laboratory and shoots him dead. EUROSEC director Jason Webb convinces NASA representative David Poulson that the West must send a crewed mission to the planet before Hassler's allies. NASA astronaut Colonel Glenn Ross and EUROSEC astrophysicist Dr John Kane are assigned to the mission. After undergoing training at the EUROSEC Space Centre in Portugal, Ross and Kane blast off in the spacecraft Phoenix. They go into hibernation for the outbound journey and are revived when they reach the planet three weeks later. Scans for extraterrestrial life prove inconclusive, so the astronauts decide to make a surface landing in their shuttle Dove. During the descent, Dove is damaged in a thunderstorm and crashes in mountainous terrain, seriously injuring Kane. The astronauts are picked up by a human rescue team, who tell Ross that they have landed near Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. When they are flown back to the Space Centre, it seems clear that they have somehow returned to Earth. Neuman and EUROSEC official Lise Hartman question Ross, who denies that he aborted the mission. Kane dies from his injuries soon after. Eventually Ross realises that he is not on Earth, but has indeed reached the unknown planet — a Counter-Earth on which all aspects of life are mirror images of those on his Earth. Signs of this reversal include text printed backwards and cars being driven on the "wrong" side of the road. At first, Ross's wife Sharon and others around him refuse to accept his claims. However, Webb is convinced when Ross reads reflected text aloud without hesitation and Kane's post-mortem examination shows that his internal organs are on the "wrong" side of his body. Ross theorises that the two Earths are parallel and that the Ross of the Counter-Earth is experiencing similar events on the other side of the Sun. Webb proposes that Ross go back to Phoenix to retrieve its flight recorder, then return home. EUROSEC builds a replacement for Dove designed to be compatible with the "reversed" technologies of Phoenix. Among the modifications is the reverse-polarisation of the electrical circuits. Ross blasts off in the spacecraft, which he has named Doppelganger, and attempts to dock with Phoenix. However, the electrical systems malfunction, disabling Doppelganger and causing it to fall through the atmosphere on a collision course with the Space Centre. EUROSEC is unable to repair the fault from the ground and Doppelganger crashes into a parked spacecraft. Ross is killed in the collision and the resulting chain reaction destroys much of the Space Centre, killing key personnel and destroying all records of Ross's presence on the Counter-Earth. Years later, a wheelchair-bound Jason Webb has been admitted to a nursing home. Noticing his reflection in a mirror, he propels himself toward it at speed and smashes into the mirror. 

=====

During a federal investigation into a local homicide, FBI Special Agent Terry McCaleb goes outside to address the media, but spots the so-called "code murderer" in the crowd. The chase ends after McCaleb suffers a heart attack, but wounds the suspect. Retired, he lives in a houseboat on the Long Beach bay, but has a second chance at life by receiving the heart of a murder victim. He is approached by Graciella Rivers; her sister, Gloria, was murdered during a robbery; she asks him to solve the case. McCaleb realizes the victim donated the heart transplanted into him. He has nightmares of the robbery during Gloria's murder. Assembling the events, he learns the murderer called for help before murdering her. McCaleb defies the advice of his physician, determined to find the murderer with the help of houseboat neighbor Buddy and local Law Enforcement Official Jaye Winston. McCaleb's path leads to several suspects, but dead-ends as he closes-in on the murderer’s identity. McCaleb realizes Buddy is the murderer. Buddy wanted McCaleb out of retirement so he'll be a hero again after he "saves" his life with the heart transplant. Buddy reveals he kidnapped Graciella and her nephew, Raymond. That sequence ends in a shootout on a fishing boat. After wounding Buddy a second time, Buddy's dying words are "I saved you." McCaleb starts another new life with Graciella and her nephew. 

=====

The members of Mystery, Inc. solve the case of the Luna Ghost. However, long- time friction among Fred Jones, a glory hog; Daphne Blake, who is fed up with being kidnapped at every mystery; and Velma Dinkley, who is never credited for her ideas, boils over and the gang breaks up, leaving Shaggy Rogers and his dog Scooby-Doo heartbroken and caring for the gang's van, the Mystery Machine. Two years later, Shaggy and Scooby are invited to solve a mystery on Spooky Island, owned by Emile Mondavarious. At the airport, they are reunited with the rest of Mystery, Inc. and learn that Fred has become a popular author, Velma works for NASA, and Daphne has undertaken martial arts to avoid kidnappers. Shaggy and Scooby unsuccessfully attempt to get Mystery, Inc. back together again, but the other three are still angry and refuse to work with each other. On the flight over, Shaggy falls in love with a girl named Mary Jane, who loves Scooby Snacks like him, but is allergic to dogs. Upon arriving at the island, the gang meets Mondavarious, who claims the visiting tourists have been brainwashed. Velma attends a ritualistic performance hosted by N'Goo Tuana and his henchman, Zarkos, a famous luchador. N'Goo claims the island was once ruled by ancient demons that have been plotting their revenge ever since they were displaced by the resort. After a misunderstanding with a local voodoo priest, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby venture into the resort's ghost ride and meet Fred and Velma inside, where they split up to look for clues. Fred and Velma come across a school designed to educate inhuman creatures about human culture, while Daphne discovers a pyramid-shaped artifact called the Daemon Ritus. The gang flees, but an army of demons attacks, kidnapping Fred, Velma, Mondavarious, and other tourists, while Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Mary Jane escape. The next day, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby learn that demons have possessed Fred, Velma and the other tourists. Zarkos captures Daphne and steals the Daemon Ritus. Shaggy and Scooby encounter Mary Jane, but Scooby realizes she is possessed as well. Shaggy begins to argue, but is interrupted when Scooby falls through a hole into an underground chamber. While searching for him, Shaggy discovers a vat of protoplasm containing the souls of those possessed. He frees his friends’ souls, but Daphne and Fred's souls end up in each other's bodies. Velma discovers that sunlight destroys the demons. Shaggy steals back the Daemon Ritus, which randomly switches his, Velma, Fred, and Daphne's souls until all end up in the correct bodies. They come across the voodoo priest, who explains that the demons, led by Mondavarious, will rule the world for the next ten thousand years if a pure soul is offered as a sacrifice during their ritual. Shaggy realizes the pure soul is Scooby, who unwittingly accepts to be the sacrifice. Fred, Daphne, and Velma decide to put their Luna Ghost mystery fight behind them in order to help Shaggy save Scooby. The gang plot to trap the demon cult, but it fails and only Daphne escapes capture. Mondavarious steals Scooby's soul using the Daemon Ritus. Shaggy pushes Mondavarious, causing Scooby's soul to be released. As Fred and Velma confront the defeated Mondavarious, they, Shaggy, Scooby, and N'Goo discovered he is a robot controlled by Scooby's estranged nephew Scrappy-Doo, who was abandoned by the gang years ago after he urinated on Daphne. Using the absorbed souls of the tourists, Scrappy transforms into a monster and tries to kill the gang. Daphne is attacked and captured by Zarkos again, but defeats him by kicking him into the ritual chamber. This frees the possessed souls and the demons are exposed to a disco skull's sunlight reflection and die. Shaggy rips the Daemon Ritus from Scrappy's body to free the rest and finds out that the real Mondavarious is being kept imprisoned in a small underground cell, until they release him. The film ends as Scrappy-(locked up in a small dog crate), N'Goo, Zarkos and all the evil minions are arrested, while the reunited gang promise to continue solving mysteries together. 

=====

Master of ceremonies Ben Birdie (bandleader Ben Bernie) is accosted in the opening scene by Walter Windpipe (Walter Winchell). The short then proceeds to showcase many Hollywood stars in the form of caricatures, including Katharine Hepburn (as a horse named Miss Heartburn), Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Ned Sparks, Hugh Herbert, W. C. Fields, Clark Gable, Groucho and Harpo Marx, Johnny Weissmuller (in character as Tarzan) and Lupe Vélez, Mae West, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Laurel and Hardy, Edward G. Robinson, Fred Astaire, and George Raft. Musical entertainments are provided by Dame Edna May Oliver as "The Lady in Red", the Dionne quintuplets (who were in reality only two years old at the time) and Helen Morgan, sitting on the piano, turning on the tears with a torch song causing most of the guests to cry (except Ben Birdie and a few of the guests) and flooding the Grove in the process. Whereas other cartoons have caricatured celebrities as either humans or animals, oddly, this short does both—half are seen as human, half as animal versions of the stars. 

=====

Priya Amalraj is a young student at a convent who is known for her friendly, bubbly and precocious nature. Her father, Amalraj, is a widower and a clothing industrialist who expects Priya to look after his business, however Priya's main ambition is to become a nun, much to his horror. He tries to stop this by unsuccessfully trying to fix a wedding alliance for her. Thomas Thangadurai is a polite and well mannered NRI who returns to India after his studies to look after his father's James Thangadurai's business. James is a former associate of Amalraj and had set up his clothing business opposite Amalraj's factory. Amalraj dislikes James due to his boorish and clumsy attitude even though Thomas and Priya are childhood friends. Thomas bumps into Priya after several years at the convent when he goes to see his aunt Mother Superior, who is the chief nun at the convent. He takes Priya's help in surprising Mother Superior with a gift on her birthday. In the process, he falls in love with Priya, but is unable to confess his love for her. He is shocked when he finds out about Priya's ambition to become a nun. He approaches a barber named Deva, who is known for his ability to change women's minds, and asks him to change Priya's mind about becoming a nun. Deva, though initially hesitant, accepts. Deva and his friend, a blind but aspiring musician Guru, befriend Priya, and convince her to join their music troupe. Priya's singing talent helps the troupe gain recognition and soon they are approached to audition for a film. Deva, Guru and the rest of the troupe play various tricks to make Priya fall in love with Thomas. But in the process, Deva realises that he is falling for Priya instead. Complications arise when Priya too reciprocates Deva's love, and Thomas, with the help of Deva, finally manages to propose his love to Priya. Priya finds out about Deva's real reason for his association with her at this juncture, and hurt and betrayed, decides to return to the convent to undergo nun training and fulfil her ambition of becoming a nun. She also quits Deva's and Guru's troupe. Deva tries to convince Priya to change her mind, but in the process, he meets with a serious accident and falls into a coma. Priya, though undergoing the nun training, is unable to forget Deva. Meanwhile, Deva comes out of coma and is visited by Thomas, who though upset and angry, realises that Deva and Priya are meant for each other and sacrifices his love. Thomas rushes to the convent on the day Priya is to become a nun, and with the help of Mother Superior, finally manages to talk her out of becoming a nun and convince her to marry Deva. The story then shifts forward by a few years. Thomas, who is now a priest, baptises the young daughter of Deva and Priya, who are happily married, with Deva looking after his father-in-law's business. It is also shown that Guru has become a renowned music director, but is facing charges of plagiarism, while James redistributes his wealth to everyone. 

=====

Jeff Peters (John Malkovich) is an emotionally repressed scientist who cannot stand others because of their intellectual inferiority. He dreams of deep space exploration, which would be difficult because of the lack of human contact for long periods of time. He develops the Ulysses android (which looks exactly like him) for the purpose of space exploration, since an android would not be affected by the isolation. Frankie Stone (Ann Magnuson) is hired to do public relations for the project. As a part of her job, she must get to know the android better, in order to "humanize" him for the benefit of the project's sponsors in Congress. However, in his interaction with her, the android develops emotions and develops better social skills than the scientist himself. At one point the android impersonates Jeff in order to leave the laboratory, and stows away in Frankie's Chevrolet Corvair. After escaping he encounters human society at a shopping mall, buys a tuxedo, goes on a date with a woman (Laurie Metcalf) who thinks he is Jeff, reducing her to an emotional wreck, and then loses his head (literally) over Frankie's best friend Trish (Glenne Headly) who has taken refuge in Frankie's apartment after walking out on her husband who is a star on the popular daytime soap opera New Jersey. Frankie also develops feelings for the android and befriends Jeff on a lesser level. Frankie's mother, (Polly Bergen) learns from Frankie's ex- boyfriend's (Steve) mother that Frankie has a doctor boyfriend (Jeff) and expects Frankie to bring him to the wedding of Frankie's sister. Frankie persuades Jeff to come, but Ulysses again absconds from the lab and gate- crashes the wedding. Trish's jealous TV-star husband crashes the wedding and gets into a fight with Ulysses. Ulysses short-circuits and crashes into the swimming pool, turning the occasion into a public relations disaster. Frankie is fired from her job and forbidden contact with Ulysses or anyone on the project. She attempts to say goodbye on launch day by using her connections with a former client and boyfriend (Steve), a candidate for Congress, but she only sees Ulysses during his farewell speech, in which he bemoans the tendency of humans and their tragic emotional relationships. Eventually, it becomes clear that Ulysses' final speech was actually made by Jeff, who has realized he cannot deal with people. Due to his lack of social skills, Jeff realizes that the lack of human contact will not be a hardship for him. Jeff decided to go into space while the android takes his place on Earth so Ulysses and Frankie (who by now are deeply in love) can be together. 

=====

The story follows the life of gay school teacher Bob who is fed up with the shallowness of the gay club scene in Manchester. A romantic at heart, Bob yearns to meet the right person and settle down. After yet another unsuccessful date, he meets Rose while they are both waiting for a taxi cab. Rose is disenchanted with her down-to-earth boyfriend and is smitten with Bob but she does not initially realise he is gay. Subsequent episodes chart their on-off love affair which is bedeviled by the activities of Bob's best friend Holly. Holly (Jessica Hynes) is secretly in love with Bob and does everything she can to quietly interfere with Bob's relationships with men because she does not want to lose him. Privately she is lonely and her only social life is through Bob and the gay clubs he visits. When Rose suddenly appears on the scene Holly sees her as a threat, stalks her and may (or may not – the plot leaves the final matter in doubt) conspire with Bob's former boyfriend Carl to split Bob and Rose up. A situation is created which suggests Bob may have had a one-night stand with Carl and Holly deliberately preys on Rose's insecurities and creates further doubts. Eventually she outright lies to Rose. The story also follows the attempts of Rose's mother to find a reliable boyfriend, and Bob's campaigning mother who runs a fictional gay support group called "Parents Against Homophobia" (PAH!). The series is a gentle romantic comedy with each episode managing to end at an emotional or comic climax – as when Bob follows Rose down the street after they argue in a pub. He admits that their first heterosexual sex act has confused him but he wants to do it again. Equally confused, Rose turns towards the camera and unromantically says: "Oh bollocks!" and the credits roll. The script takes some shrewd looks at emotions and motivations but also contrasts the different atmosphere and attitudes within gay and straight UK night clubs – as in the scene where a straight man cannot get into a straight club wearing trainers but the gay men can enter their club wearing skimpy satin sports clothes. One important scene which explains Bob's disenchantment with the gay clubs comes when he is approached by an attractive man who talks only about physical acts. Bob, desperate to be regarded as an individual replies: "I’m a Capricorn". The series has an up-beat ending which manages to resolve issues for all the main characters - even Holly eventually learns from her mistakes and blossoms into a person in her own right. Bob and Rose find happiness and Carl gets an angelic dream date. 

=====

Bart lectures the other students on the bus on the topic of water balloons. After he hits Lisa with one she fights with him all the way home. Marge stops them and tells the pair that they are going to Ohio to celebrate Uncle Tyrone's birthday. Bart and Lisa are saddened with the idea as Tyrone complained last year about why he is still alive. Homer and Marge relent and allow the kids to stay home; but Marge insists they do one family activity together. They all rent a romantic film; Bart and Lisa are unimpressed by it such that they ruin any moment the film might have created for Homer and Marge. Homer and Marge look forward to their trip without the children as they ruin every possible chance of intimacy for them. At the airport the next day, they see people in another queue, dressed in Hawaiian shirts and skimpy tops, going to Miami. This causes them to reminisce on their less-than-stellar honeymoon at a beach billboard in a run-down area of Springfield. On a whim, they decide to forego visiting Tyrone and get on the plane to Miami as a second honeymoon. As the flight is overbooked, they are upgraded to first- class, much to their delight. Bart, Lisa and Grampa learn on the news that the hotel in Dayton where Marge and Homer are supposed to be staying has been completely wiped out by a tornado. They suddenly get a call from Marge, informing them that all is well. Suspicious, Bart uses last-call return to find out the last incoming phone number and discovers their parents are in Miami. He and Lisa get Grampa to take them there. Homer and Marge see the children waiting for them outside their hotel room door, so they run from the ready-to-track-them-down pair, causing Bart and Lisa to summon a hot pursuit of their parents in an instrumental musical montage and an animated sequence. They will not have any trouble paying for their chase, considering Homer has borrowed Ned Flanders' credit card and Bart has borrowed Rod Flanders' credit card. Meanwhile, in Miami, Grampa finds companionship with an old man named Raúl who responds by turning his hearing aid off. Homer and Marge finally find themselves at the Niagara Falls, only to find the children are already there. When Bart and Lisa confront them, they agree to let them mess about in the room, making them even more despondent. The next day, Bart and Lisa, feeling a little guilty, decide to give their parents some space, and go to an amusement park, inadvertently running into Homer and Marge who snuck off for some time alone. Refusing to allow Lisa to explain, an angry Homer and Marge start running away again and find refuge in a giant inflatable castle, which their lovemaking antics cause to fall into the Niagara River. The Canadian and American rescue teams start to fight over who is to rescue as the couple floats towards the falls and certain death, only to be saved by their large flotation device. They pass by the Maid of the Mist, whose captain asks them if there is anyone alive. Homer and Marge shout they are more alive than any of the boat's squares from inside the inflatable castle, as it floats away, and they engage in martial artistic sexual intercourse underneath the falls. Bart and Lisa, watching from a telescope, decide that everything worked out just fine. Meanwhile, back in Springfield, Ned and Rod Flanders receive their monthly credit card bills and gasp at the charges Homer and Bart have run up. 

=====

Ben Hartman is vacationing in Switzerland when he meets his old school buddy Jimmy Cavanaugh - who tries to kill him. As he dodges assassins, mysterious tails, and police while searching for a safe place to hide, he finds his twin brother, Peter, who was thought to have died in an airplane crash several years earlier. Peter describes an international corporation which was formed in the last days of World War II, composed of financiers, influential members of large corporations, and Nazi brass. He gives Ben a photo of some of the leaders, only to find out that their father was a member. Soon, Peter is killed by an assassin, and Ben escapes with his life again. He later meets up with Liesel (Peter's girlfriend). Meanwhile, United States Department of Justice Agent Anna Navarro is recruited by a secretive group within the DoJ to investigate the deaths of a list of influential men around the world who have been dying mysteriously. Her probes turn up false leads, possible coverups, and dead ends, until she finds out that the men have been poisoned by someone using the same obscure toxin. Following the leads, she finds that the men she had been assigned to investigate are part of an international group of financiers and business moguls. She soon finds out that she has been reported "off the reservation", and the attempts begin on her life as well. Through their own distinct investigative means, the two protagonists discover more about the shadowy group, which is called Sigma. It is learned that Sigma has grown from a simple attempt to plunder the Nazi treasury and stabilize the industrial and financial state of the world in the wake of the war, to a political and financial machine which controls as many as 75% of the world's leading companies, and has enough covert political clout to directly influence the outcome of the likes of Presidential elections. Sigma also helped some of the Nazi war criminals, including Nazi doctor Gerhard Lenz, evade capture. Protagonists Hartman and Navarro eventually meet and form an alliance, since both are being hunted by Sigma assassins. Through their concerted efforts, they discover that Sigma is experiencing an internal struggle. The founders, who are dead or dying, believe that Sigma should disband, as it had played its role in the world; they're called the angeli rebelli, and are being hunted by the new Sigma leadership. That new leadership, an apparently philanthropic doctor named Jürgen Lenz, son of Sigma founding member Gerhard Lenz, has decided on a new direction for the group, and is determined to eliminate any internal opposition. Navarro is kidnapped by Lenz, and Hartman tracks them to an old castle in the Austrian Alps. Successfully infiltrating the castle, he discovers Sigma's new direction: age reversal. Lenz had found a way to reverse human aging based largely WW2 era experimentation on children with premature aging also known as Progeria, and he had been treating some of the world's elite to reverse their aging as well. Lenz was his own first successful experiment, for his real name is Gerhard - he is the Nazi doctor and a founding member of Sigma. After killing Lenz, Hartman and Navarro escape in a helicopter, while the castle is destroyed by an avalanche. The book is based on the Bilderberg Group and the myths and mysteries surrounding it. 

=====

